The Sindh government has expressed its reservation over the gas infrastructure development cess and decided to approach the federal government to distribute collected money among the provinces under Article 161 of the Constitution.
This was decided in a meeting presided over by Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah at CM House on Monday. Advisor to CM for Finance Syed Murad Ali Shah, Secretary Finance Sohail Rajput, Secretary Energy Agha Wasif, Secretary Law Mir Muhammad Shaikh, Assistant Advocate General Sindh and other officers attended the meeting.
Advisor Syed Murad Ali Shah while briefing the meeting said that the gas infrastructure development cess was imposed by the federal government through legislation in the National Assembly in 2011 and it was supposed to be utilised for Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipe line and Pak-Iran gas pipeline.
He said since 2011 to outgoing financial year, collected amount of Rs 131 billion had not been utilised because of the fate of projected gas lines as such this amount was lying with federal government, which must be distributed among the provinces under Article 161 of the Constitution.
The chief minister asked the officers concerned to approach the federal government for getting provincial share from this cess with proper justification. He said the Sindh government would also use other forums and options to get its legitimate share from this levy of gas infrastructure development cess if it was not responded by the federal government positively.
