Govt tables bill in parliament – Friends turn foes over GST

ISLAMABAD: The government tabled the Reformed General Sales Tax (GST) Bill in both houses of the parliament on Friday as coalition partners – the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, the Awami National Party (ANP) and the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl – joined the opposition to reject the proposed controversial law.
While the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the PML-Quaid (PML-Q) announced that they would block the passage of the reformed GST bill in the National Assembly and the Senate, the MQM also announced that it would go an extra mile to oppose the bill as Dr Farooq Sattar called it the “last nail in Pakistan’s economic coffin”.
While the JUI-F opposed the bill in the Senate, its chief Fazlur Rehman remained tight-lipped in the National Assembly. The ANP also opposed it in the National Assembly but silently supported the government in the Senate. As the mayhem in the National Assembly continued for the third consecutive day, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani lashed out at Opposition Leader Nisar Ali Khan, reprimanding him for unnecessarily creating a situation where the institution of army was condemned.
“Even after the army chief and the ministers have denied that the reported incident of two army personnel training guns at two ministers ever happened, why are you trying to get an institution, which is rendering sacrifices, condemned,” the prime minister asked the opposition leader. The prime minister too had to face embarrassment when the MQM challenged his statement that the cabinet was taken into confidence over the talks with the IMF.
“It is for the first time that the cabinet has been taken into confidence over the parlays with the IMF,” Gilani said when Sattar confronted him, saying, “As far as I remember, no discussion ever took place on the IMF package.” To the opposition’s criticism on talks with the IMF and on the reformed GST, Gilani said, “The reformed GST bill has not been tabled in the darkness of the night. The debate continued for almost six months and all four provincial ministers had approved it,” he said.
He said only Sindh had expressed reservations on the bill “but we convinced the province in the past six months”. The prime minister said there was consensus on the bill in the recent meeting of the Council of Common Interest. “After that I also took the cabinet on board on the reformed GST,” he said. He said the government had no other way to generate billions of rupees to help the flood affected people.
“The provinces have refused to pool their share in the funds for the flood affected and the federal government alone has to pay Rs 160 billion for reconstruction,” he said. On the proposed accountability bill, Gilani said the government had brought the bill and then withdrawn it on the opposition’s objection even though it had the majority to get it passed from parliament.
“I asked the committee to review on the demand of the PML-N as we want a transparent accountability system,” he said. Referring to reported constitution avenue incident, Gilani said, “The president and I asked about the incident but both ministers, Babar Awan and Nazar Gondal, denied that any such incident took place. Then I talked to the ISI DG and the COAS but they too said that no such incident had taken place,” he said.
He said Zardari will respond Nawaz Sharif’s letter after he returned from China. Earlier, the leader of opposition in the National Assembly, Nisar Ali Khan said the government’s actions did not match its words. “Today is the last day of the NA session but the government has failed to table the accountability bill in the House despite the prime minister’s pledge on the floor of the House that the bill will be tabled it the current session,” he said.
“The prime minister had promised that his finance minister would take the House into confidence over the reformed GST. The government did not even take its coalition partners into confidence over it,” he said, adding that the House would not stamp the IMF agenda. MQM leader Farooq Sattar said the MQM fiercely opposed the bill.
“We offer Rs 1,000 billion to the government. Impose tax on landlords, abolish wheat support price system, introduce FBR reforms, revamp public sector enterprises, curb smuggling and get Rs 1000 billion to serve the flood affected,” he said, demanding the government distribute land among flood victims according to the MQM land reforms bill.