Cabinet misled by finance secy on POL levy collection?

1
137

The apathy and indifference of the members of the federal cabinet is evident from the fact that none of them paid any heed to the woes of the people who have been massively burdened with the hike in the prices of petroleum products and the imposition of a 10 percent cess on the compressed natural gas (CNG).
A source told Pakistan Today that towards the end of the federal cabinet meeting, Minister of State for Human Resource Development Shaikh Waqas Akram made a point that the increase in POL prices was too much, but no one bothered to discuss or raise the issue and all, including the prime minister, kept mum and the meeting was called off.
“We are elected representatives of the people and answerable to them. How would we face them in the upcoming election,” said Waqas Akram, but the prime minister did not respond.
Meanwhile, the federal cabinet was apparently misled by finance secretary on collection of petroleum levy as Information Minister Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan informed a press briefing that the cabinet was told that the government had missed its target of petroleum levy collection.
She said a target of Rs 120 billion had been fixed by the government under petroleum levy, but the government was still short of its target, as only Rs 20 billion had been collected in six months.
“This means that we are already facing a deficit of Rs 40 billion. This deficit has cropped up as the government did not pass on the impact of increase in oil prices in the international market to our people. If we did not pass on this raise this month, we would have had to meet the deficit by printing new notes which would ultimately lead to a rise in inflation,” she said.
The claim by the information minister was in contradiction to a statement issued by the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) only a day earlier that had put the figure of collection of Rs 153 billion under petroleum levy.
“OGRA had, however, recommended to the federal government that POL prices be kept unchanged by absorbing the said increase in petroleum levy to provide relief to public at large. OGRA had also highlighted that estimated receipts of the federal government from Petroleum Levy (PL) and sales tax for the period July-December 2011 amounted to Rs 153.3 billion, which was Rs 9.2 billion higher than July-December 2010 receipts of Rs 144.1 billion,” said a brief statement issued by OGRA on Tuesday.
However, when the information minister was confronted for quoting wrong figures to the media, the minister said that finance secretary had told these figures during the cabinet meeting.
“The finance secretary is a responsible person and one must not doubt him,” she asserted, suggesting that OGRA may be at fault. She said that the prime minister had directed minister for finance to evolve a strategy in consultation with the provincial governments to ensure provision of daily routine items at controlled rates.
The cabinet meeting, Firdous said, also approved the decision of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) to procure 478,000 tonnes of sugar from domestic millers, which the government was claiming as panacea to resolve timely payment to the sugarcane growers failed to yield the desired results as Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani directed the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) to find some middle way to resolve the issue.
Meanwhile, the prime minister also took the cabinet into confidence on the overall constitutional requirements of the election commission with regard to holding by-polls in different constituencies.
Gilani briefed his cabinet colleagues regarding by-polls and their legal and constitutional aspects for which the National Assembly session had been summoned to pass the 20th Amendment Bill, she said.
The minister said the prime minister also informed the cabinet about the ongoing consultation process and coordination with the political parties sitting in the parliament in this regard.
She said the cabinet took up a nine-point agenda and expressed satisfaction over implementation of its decisions by the Ministry of Interior, which had implemented 88 percent decisions of the cabinet.
She said that the meeting was informed that a Madrassah Welfare Authority would be formed with the objective of devising a uniform policy for syllabus, students’ registration and allocation of funds.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik informed the cabinet that efforts were on to establish the authority in consultation with all the stakeholders, sources said.
“There was a disagreement on the name of the authority and Malik said the stakeholders had been directed to put forth three names out of which a name would be selected for the authority, which would work in consultation with the provincial governments. A draft would soon be put before the cabinet for approval,” the cabinet source informed.
The information minister said the ministries of Interior and SAFRON had been directed to work on war-footings for early repatriation of 3.5 million Afghan refugees and the ministry was also directed to keep strict monitoring on their activities and places where they were residing.
The minister said the cabinet asked the quarters concerned to revisit the draft of NACTA Ordinance-2011 in consultation with the stakeholders so that a final draft could be sent to the parliament for approval. The prime minister directed the cabinet subcommittee to finalise the draft which was pending for several months.
She said the interior minister assured the cabinet that during the next 15 days, an elaborate strategy would be shared on the Safe City Islamabad project, which had already been approved by the prime minister.
Firdous said the Interior Ministry had been directed to prepare a draft of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on exchange of offenders between Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates.
She said the cabinet was informed in detail about the upcoming visit of Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani to Qatar from February 6 to 8.
The cabinet discussed various initiatives to further strengthen the existing ties between the two countries.
Firdous added that all-out efforts would be made to export Pakistan’s skilled labour to various countries, especially Qatar, which was preparing to host the football world cup in 2022.
The cabinet approved two MoUs to be signed with Qatar during the prime minister’s visit. She said that one MoU would be signed with Qatar for the construction of national highways and motorways infrastructure, while the other would be on hydro-power generating projects aimed at meeting the growing energy demand of the country.
She said the cabinet also endorsed decisions of the Economic Coordination Committee, stressing the need to ensure timely payments to sugarcane growers.
“The prime minister directed to evolve a sugarcane growers’ protection strategy to address problems being faced by the farming community.”
She said the Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited had also been advised to streamline the process of agri-loans so that farmers could take maximum benefit of the facility. She said three amendments in the Chartered Account Amendment Bill 2007 had been approved by the cabinet, making it a more professional and vibrant body.
The cabinet gave a go-ahead signal to the Interior Division to start negotiations for visa abolition agreement of diplomatic officials and ordinary businessmen and passport holders.
“The meeting also approved a memorandum of understanding to be signed with Russia to enhance bilateral cooperation in the field of science and technology,” the minister said.
To a question, she said the government was taking all possible measures to provide uninterrupted gas supply to domestic consumers.

1 COMMENT

Comments are closed.