ISLAMABAD: The federal government had assured the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) that sugar prices would be brought back to their previous position within three days, Overseas Pakistanis Minister Dr Farooq Sattar said on Thursday.
He made these remarks in a press conference. “After our opposition to the Revised General Sales Tax (RGST) and Flood Surcharge bills in the federal cabinet’s meeting, two cabinet members, Naveed Qamar and Hafeez Shaikh, held a meeting with us and assured to bring down sugar prices to their previous position within three days”, the MQM leader said.
Sattar told journalists that both the ministers informed the MQM that provincial governments have been directed to send their sugar quotas to markets immediately in order to reduce the price of the commodity. Speaking on the petrol price hike, the minister said that the federal government had sought sometime for consultations in order to reply to the MQM’s proposal of abolishing the Petroleum Development Levy.
He said that the MQM believed that both the RGST and flood surcharge would increase poverty and inflation in the country. Sattar said that the MQM had decided to oppose the bills in the cabinet meeting after thoroughly studying them and coming to the conclusion that the national economy would collapse if the bills were passed by parliament. “The present RGST bill is virtually a form of the value added tax (VAT).
Earlier, general sales tax (GST) was imposed and only 1350 out of the total registered 0.1 million firms paid the tax all over the country”, he said. “If you cannot implement the GST, how the RGST can be implemented? Instead of revising the tax, there is a need of revising the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and other related tax-collecting machinery.
At present there is 14 to 15 percent inflation in the country and if the bills are passed it will ensue inflation of 26 percent and commodities price will shoot up by 100 percent”, the MQM leader said.
