Government gets fiscal year 2019 budget passed by NA

The National Assembly Friday approved federal budget of Rs 5.932 trillion for the fiscal year 2018-19 by incorporating certain amendments in the Finance Bill, 2018 amid opposition and criticism of the opposition parties. The Lower House of the Parliament incorporated a number of amendments in the Finance Bill 2018, which were proposed by Finance Minister Miftah Ismail, besides recommendations of the Senate and members of the house during the debate and legislation for the budget 2018-19.
The government also made "the Foreign Assets (Declaration and Repatriation) Bill, 2018 and the Voluntary Declaration of Domestic Assets Bill, 2018" and amnesty scheme parts of the Finance Bill 2018. The opposition parties, particularly Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), criticized and opposed the budget and urged the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government to present budget only for the next four months.
They argued that the government has no legal and moral authority to pass budget for the next whole year as it has only 14 days left in the office. But the government set aside the demand of the opposition and approved the budget for the whole financial year. Finance Minister Miftah Ismail presented the Finance Bill 2018 and supplementary demands for grants for the financial year ending on June 30, 2019. The House passed the bill with a majority vote after reading it clause-by-clause. The finance minister also moved 127 demands of grants of Rs 333,145,342,000 for the financial year 2017-18, relating to various divisions and their related departments during the fiscal year 2018-19 and the House approved all of them.
The finance minister also introduced some amendments for the Finance Bill including formation of an alternative dispute resolution in the tax matters, making it compulsory that if foreign currency cash exceeding $10,000 is brought in Pakistan, the FBR would ask source of money and people having foreign currency accounts will also be liable to become tax filers.
Ismail remarked that as per the bill, people who have dollar accounts must be tax filers. "Non-tax filers cannot keep dollar accounts," he explained. The finance minister also withdrew health levy, saying it is the mandate of the provinces to impose and collect the health levy after the 18th constitutional amendment; therefore, it is being left for them. He also announced tax exemption for trusts and charities, but only for those mentioned in the finance bill. He said the Federal Board of Revenue is empowered to scrutinize the tax exemption claim of charities as some of them are also suspicious.
The minister also claimed that exports increased 24 percent in March 2018 and 18 percent in April 2018 while the imports have reduced by 2 percent. The minister on the occasion announced five basic pays as honorarium to the employees of various departments who have performed their duties during the budget session of the National Assembly. He said these included employees of National Assembly, Senate, Associated Press of Pakistan, Pakistan Television, Radio Pakistan, Press Information Department, Pakistan International Airline, Pakistan Post, Capital Development Authority, Pakistan Railways and WAPDA.
Members of opposition questioned performance of the various departments and their expenditures that the finance minister got approved through demands for grants.
PTI leader Assad Umar said that most of the supplementary budget is related to payment of foreign debt and debt services and this puts a question mark on performance of the government.