PESHAWAR: The provincial legislature of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Friday said the provincial government had presented its reservations on the levy of reformed general sales tax (GST) and demanded a two-year exemption for the province.
This was stated by Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly in response to the demands by PML-N legislators for tabling a joint resolution against the GST Bill.
Three legislators of PML-N, Javed Abbasi, Manawar Khan and Abdul Sattar, had sought permission for the presentation of their joint resolution.
Abbasi, a PML-N MPA from Abbottabad, criticised the levy of GST, saying it would multiply the problems of the poor. Abbasi said the party opposed the GST at all levels.
He requested the chair for suspending the rules to allow the presentation of the resolution.
In response to the PML-N legislators’ demands, Mian Iftikhar said some lawmakers were creating such a situation for political scoring. He said the central leadership was busy in negotiations on the matter.
The minister said “popular decisions are very difficult to make”, adding that he had already expressed reservations over the matter.
He said the devastation caused by floods and terrorism had played havoc with the economy of the province and they had sought exemption from levying GST for two years.
The minister said there was no justification in raising the GST issue in the provincial assembly before the bill’s tabling in the National Assembly.
Later, after failing to get permission from the chair to table the resolution, the PML-N legislators staged a walked out from the House.
