A parliamentary panel on Friday recommended the government to waive off the agriculture loans of small farmers of the erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), as they have suffered a lot due to militancy over the past several years.
Senate Standing Committee on States and Frontier Regions (SAFRON), which met here with Senator Hidayat Ullah in the chair, was given briefings by senior officials of Ministry of SAFRON, Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited (ZTBL) and State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), Member IR Policy Wing, CEO Tribal Areas Electricity Company (TESCO) and others.
The ZTBL officials told the committee that till 2009 all the outstanding loans amounting to Rs 431 million of the small farmers of the erstwhile FATA and PATA have been waived off due to the damages caused to the agriculture in the areas because of the militancy.
They told that the total amount of outstanding loans given to people from FATA between 2009 and 2012 is Rs 471 million, out of which only Rs 30 million are agricultural loans.
On this, the committee recommended that the agricultural loans should be write-off to give relief to small farmers as the area has been under civil war and no agricultural produce has been obtained.
Briefing the panel, SAFRON Secretary Mohammad Aslam said after the 25th Constitutional Amendment, the FATA and PATA were merged into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and therefore, the President or the Federation cannot make regulations for erstwhile FATA and PATA anymore. He said all the functions performed by the erstwhile FATA Secretariat, its secretaries and directorates also transferred to the concerned departments of the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
About Levies and Khasadar Force, he said after repealing the Regulation of 2012, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government promulgated two ordinances on March 12, 2019 (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa ORD.NO.I of 2019) and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Khasadar Force (Maintenance, Regulation and Protection of Service) (Transition) Ordinance ORD. No. II of 2019 and therefore the two forces stand provincial and the Ministry of SAFRON has no role anymore in respect of the two said forces.
The committee was also given update on the status of non-payment of salaries and pension to the Levies and Khassadar personnel working in Kurram and Orakzai districts.
The committee also directed the deputy commissioners of all seven tribal districts to complete work on proposed and recommended projects for the year and submit details to the committee with mention of the agency or parliamentarian who has recommended the project.
The committee was told that according to Planning and Development Department of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, law enforcement agencies, MNAs, senators and tribal elders have to be consulted before proposing any project in the area.
The committee discussed in detail the matter of tax exemption to the erstwhile FATA and it was informed that due to the economic backwardness of the former FATA and PATA, the federal government on July 23, 2018 granted income tax exemption on profits and gains derived from any source in the areas.
The officials of the FBR told the committee that exemption from income tax was conferred upon the profit and gains derived by association of persons (AOPs) and companies from existing businesses set up in the areas comprising the ex-FATA and ex-PATA.
They said exemption from all withholding taxes (except advance tax on imports) was made available in cases where both the payer and the recipient were residents of the territories constituting the erstwhile FATA and PATA. Additionally, there are exemptions of taxes on setting up new industries, supply of electricity to domestic, commercial and industrial consumers, on supply of goods by retailers located in the areas, and on the goods produced and supplied by industrial units located in the ex-FATA and ex-PATA.
The committee was told that the SROs 1212 and 1213 relating to sales tax and income tax are not in force now and the tax situation is the same as was applicable before 25th amendment. The committee decided to call chairman FBR, secretary finance and secretary law and justice in the next meeting to discuss the matter.
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