Though the Senate on Friday approved recommendations on controversial General Sales Tax Bill 2010 and Finance Amendment Bill 2010the question of numerical strength required for approval remained unanswered as the Chairman hastily prorogued the house, turning down repeated calls for counting of votes from MQM, PML-N, JUI-F and Jamaat-i-Islami senators.

Senate Chairman Farooq H Naek ignored calls for counting of votes and opted for voice-voting at a time when the House was in chaos and members were chanting anti-bill slogans amid a ferocious protest.

In addition, above all, Finance Minister Hafeez Sheikh was not given the opportunity to wind up the debate on RGST bill.

The protesting senators were furious over the hasty passage of the recommendations, which they later on described as 'bulldozing'.

The house approved 15 recommendations for inclusion in Reformed General Sales Tax Bill, 2010 and four recommendations in Finance (Amendment) Bill 2010 amid uproar and protests by coalition partners, coupled with a walkout, ahead of voting, by Pakistan Muslim League (Q), which other opponent parties said helped the government.

Among coalition partners of the ruling PPP, it was only ANP that supported the government by not opposing the bill after assurance from the government for inclusion of its recommendations in the report.

In addition to the ANP, senators from FATA also supported the government.

However, MQM and JUI-F strongly opposed the move.

The severe criticism and opposition from the MQM-led senator, Sabir Baloch of PPP raised objection over the protest by Babar Ghauri, saying that he was a federal minister and was opposing the government.

"If you people want to oppose the bill, you should have resigned first", Sabir said.

"If you want to get rid of us, then issue a notification" replied Babar, adding that "we will not resign to pave the way for the government and, instead, we will oppose the move while staying in the house." Before the voice voting on the recommendations, PML-Q staged walkout (against the GST Bill!) on the call of its chief Shujaat Hussain, who was of the view that his party did not want to become part of the bill "which would directly affect the poor" of the country.

Senators belonging to both treasury and opposition benches, including JUI-F's Ghafoor Haideri, MQM's Babar Ghauri, JI's Khurshid Ahmad and PML-Q's Shujaat Hussain were of the view that their recommendations were not taken in the finance committee.

Therefore, these should be considered as minorities' recommendations, but the Chairman turned down their demands.

During the morning session, the Chairman, having expert opinion from both sides, rejected a fresh note moved by leader of the Opposition Wasim Sajjad that "Senate should recommend to the National Assembly not to consider the RGST bill".

Naek said that it was inappropriate to permit any member to give fresh recommendation because the Finance Committee had already laid recommendations of all members in the House.

He said that the recommendations were approved unanimously by the committee which is duly represented by all major parties and the committee members without prejudice to their principled position gave their suggestions during its meetings.

Earlier, the chairman of the Standing Committee on Finance, Ahmed Ali from MQM presented the report of the committee on the proposals for making recommendations on the 'Reformed General Sales Tax Bill, 2010' referred to the House on November 12, 2010.

The report on deliberations of the standing committee also included dissenting notes from MQM, ANP, PML-Q and JI.

The Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs has unanimously given 19 recommendations to be discussed by the Senate and transmit them to the National Assembly for consideration to include in the GST and Finance (Amendment) Bill 2010.

The committee has recommended that food items besides stationery for education purposes and medicines should be exempted from the Sales Tax.

It has proposed that flood tax should be imposed on the taxpayers having income above five hundred thousand rupees instead of every taxpayer.

Some members were of the views that five major sectors of the economy have been proposed in the Bill to be brought into RGST net in one go; that would also result in accelerating inflation.

They suggested mobilisation of fresh avenues for taxation particularly targeting the wealthy classes and sectors which have evaded tax during the last six decades.

They also suggested that legislation must be introduced to protect farm workers by giving them protection of minimum wages, social security and health insurance benefits.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2010

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