ZAHEER ABBASI

ISLAMABAD: Members of National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance have accused the Chairman of Finance Committee of making the committee completely ineffective by toeing the government line.

“The Committee has not been playing its role” the members of the opposition parties lamented during a meeting of the Committee, which was chaired by Qaiser Sheikh here on Thursday and did not accept their request for having a discussion on ‘Panama Leaks’.

Soon after the committee’s meeting started, Pakistan Tahreek-e-Insaaf Asad Umer and Pakistan People’s Party and Nafeesa Shah and Naveed Qamar reminded the chairman of the past decisions of the committee for having a briefing from Finance Ministry and Federal Board of Revenue on Panama Leaks. “We must have discussion on it today,” they added. Secretary Finance Dr Waqar Masood said it was not on the agenda of the meeting, opposition members responded what is there to hide. Asad Umar stated, “Prima facie, the government’s malafide intention is to block any discussion on Panama Leaks”.

“We want a briefing to know what actions Finance Ministry and its various attached departments have taken so far on the issue,” Asad Umar asked. When members of the opposition insisted on a briefing, the committee chairman said, “As you are (Naveed Qamar) member of Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and can put up the issue on agenda for discussion in PAC”.

Chairman’s remarks infuriated Asad Umar, who said that Naveed Qamar could not use his discretion, as he (Asad) was not a member of the PAC. He said he was a member of the Finance Committee and stated no justification of Finance Ministry was acceptable because the committee members have so long been demanding for discussion on the issue. “It is documented in April 19 meeting that FBR and Finance Ministry would give a briefing to the committee on ‘Panama Leaks’ within ten days,” he added.

Naveed Qamar said, “We want the FBR to give us briefing on actions it has taken on Panama leaks before moving on agenda items”. Eventually, the chairman of the committee agreed to have briefing from the Finance Division and FBR on Panama Leaks in the next meeting.

While briefing to the committee on general tax collection for the last fiscal year, Chairman Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Nisar Muhamad Khan stated that sale tax collection on petroleum products during the last fiscal year stood at Rs219 billion as compared to Rs 166 billion. He further stated some tax measures were taken in November 2015 with annualized impact of Rs 40 billion; however, total collection from these measures was significantly less than projection.

Asad Umar pointed out that tax authorities have used different formats for different years; therefore a comparison was not possible but stated tax collection from petroleum products was significantly more during 2015-16 as compared to 2014-15.