- PTI chief says gas cess to weaken federation of Pakistan, demands national consensus on issue
- Says smaller provinces to suffer from cess, claims KP would have get Rs 15b if cess levied through FED
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Wednesday came down hard on the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leadership for what he called “jeopardising the federation of Pakistan by passing Gas Infrastructure Development Cess (GIDC) Bill which would send a negative message to the smaller provinces whose rights have been compromised under the new cess”.
“It seems Punjab is Pakistan for PML-N while smaller provinces are nothing,” said Khan while addressing a press conference at his residence in the federal capital.
He said consultation with provincial governments over natural oil and mineral gas was a must under Article 154 of the Constitution. “Since GIDC pertains to gas, it is mandatory that it should have been first discussed and approved by the CCI,” he said.
He claimed the promised infrastructure in the GIDC Bill is meant to cater gas-constricted territories, whereas Sindh, Balochistan and KP are net-exporters of natural gas, so “imposing GIDC for benefit of one province, Punjab, is nothing but extortion”.
“Since the federal excise duty on gas is directly payable to the provinces under Article 161(1) of the Constitution as a straight transfer and KP produces roughly 10pc of the entire gas, had this amount been levied through FED mode, KP would have received at least Rs 15 billion as extra revenues,” he said.
“Consumers from KP will be paying for infrastructure that would not benefit them for a single molecule of gas. There is no commitment that KP or other provinces would be given any share or quota from IPP, TAPI or Imported LNG, for which this cess is supposedly intended,” the PTI chief said.
“The PPP opposed the bill initially but later its leadership paved way for the passage of the anti-poor bill under a deal with the PML-N. It seems there is no opposition in the Parliament except the PTI, as both Nawaz Sharif and Asif Zardari have struck an underhand deal,” Khan lamented.
Moreover, Khan claimed PPP had sold out the rights of Sindh on its precious natural resource of gas.
Commenting over the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), Khan said it was critical that it be approached as a national project and have national consensus on the issue. He added nobody from the KP government has been given an opportunity to participate from the very beginning and the KP CM has had no engagement regarding CPEC at all.
Grilling the premier for insufficiently working for consensus, he lamented that CPEC joint parliamentary committee (JPC) was not included in the agenda of National Assembly session summoned for this week.
Khan said such discriminatory decision-making and attitudes were weakening the federation. “We demand that a JPC be immediately constituted and no decisions regarding the CPEC are finalised until it reviewed the plans developed so far and the CCI has fully debated and endorsed the plans,” he maintained.
