FROM A RINGSIDE SEAT: Behind-the-scene negotiations work

Unlike the expectations, the temperature in the Parliament also plummeted over latest increase in petroleum prices on Thursday apparently because of behind the scene negotiations which provided a sigh of relief to the beleaguered government on the issue.
Neither opposition nor the allies, who have been very noisy a day before on the issue, have pressed hard and agreed to a mildly drafted unanimous resolution to constitute a committee for giving recommendations within a week to reconsider withdrawal of latest increase in the petroleum prices. Strange is the working of the present government as no one was ready to take the responsibility, as otherwise repeatedly referred to collective responsibility of the Cabinet was completely missing in the case of latest petroleum prices' hike.
Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Dr Asim Hussain put entire responsibility on Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA), and Cabinet Division being headed by the Prime Minister, who was not present in the House at that time. Unwilling to disclose the revenue collection from Petroleum Levy during the first six months of the current fiscal year, Asim wanted the members to ask this question to Minister for Finance Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh who was also not present in the House. However, abrupt adjournment of the proceedings on Wednesday, apparently, ushered well for the government and the details provided by the Minister for Petroleum in response to a call attention notice about various portion constituting oil prices and procedure for their withdrawal may provide a very little room for their decrease. And that, too, could only be done by the Parliament and not the government. One could understand the reasons given by the Minister for various charges of petroleum prices for he wanted to tell the members about the fiscal implications the government may face as a result of withdrawal of increase.
Perhaps, that is why his suggestion to the Parliament was to also consult the Ministry of Finance to know whether it would have sufficient fiscal space to withdraw the increase and went on saying that no one else and only parliament could remove or reduce the taxes on petroleum prices being part of the 'Finance Bill'. As per the details he provided to the house, import price of oil was around Rs 65 per liter, not possible to be reduced and so are fixed charges on account of inland freight margin, Oil Marketing Companies margin, and dealers' margin.. The only portion left for reduction, the Minister said, was either to cut the GST or petroleum levy by the parliament but also wanted the committee to suggest alternate revenue measure to cover the revenue loss the government may face on account of decrease in oil prices.
The prime minister who also spoke very briefly after as usual long tirade of the opposition did not give any firm assurance and confined himself to stating that Minister for Finance would sit with the committee to do whatever is possible.
The interesting part of the long speech of the opposition leader was for making conditional his party support to the government for unanimous approval of 20th Constitutional Amendment with the reversal of hike in petroleum products' prices. But he did not pressed the government hard on the oil issue rather he appeared more focused on the issue of appointment of independent Chief Election Commissioner, Election Commission of Pakistan and a neutral caretaker set up for the next elections. Nisar said that his party was ready to support the government for unanimous approval of the 20th Constitutional Amendment to indemnify more than 20 by-elections of post 18th Constitutional Amendment but wanted the government to also include some other amendments in it for ensuring free and fair elections in the future as well to the accountability law for making public office holders accountable.
Nisar also vehemently criticised the intelligence agencies for their alleged involvement in torturing and killing of missing persons and urged Prime Minister Gilani to bring the agencies under the control of the government and vowed to walk to Supreme Court on the next hearing of the case even alone if nobody accompanied him. Another important issue discussed in the House was about non-filing of tax returns by more than 42 percent taxpayers with finance Minister acknowledging the fact that collection of taxes has remained big failure of all the government in Pakistan for which the economy was facing enormous difficulties. The Minister was not able to explain how much he or his government has done in the recent years to increase the tax base and improve the performance of the Federal Board of Revenue, major concerns of most of the members.