ZAHEER ABBASI

ISLAMABAD: The Finance Ministry stated on Tuesday that the government was no longer issuing supplementary grants, other than corona-related spending, adding that only Rs20 billion supplementary grants were released in the fiscal year 2019-2020, compared to Rs24 billion in the fiscal year 2018-2019, as finance committee met to consider taxes-related agenda items.

This was stated by the special secretary Ministry of Finance during a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Finance, in response to a constitutional amendment proposed by Senator Sherry Rehman with regards to supplementary grants.

The meeting presided over by Farooq H Naek was held to take up various agenda items regarding taxes as well as a bill moved by Senator Sherry Rehman seeking constitutional amendment to stop issuing supplementary grants.

The special secretary Ministry of Finance informed the committee that technical supplementary grants were released from the saving in the budget and no additional money was involved, and the present government had been discouraging supplementary grants, which were reflected from the numbers.

He added that only Covid-related supplementary grants would be issued.

The chairman of the committee asked the Finance Ministry to prepare a comprehensive working paper on the bill within 15 days, and submit it to the committee.

Senator Mohsin Aziz was of the view that it would be impossible to seek parliament’s approval for releasing supplementary grant in case of an emergency situation.

Senator Sherry Rehman explained to the committee that the purpose of proposing constitutional amendment was to stop misuse of supplementary grants.

She said that billions of rupee supplementary grants were being misused, which were only allowed for emergency.

She added that the government was continuously using this grant, and there was need to amend the clause 84 of the Constitution, and approval of supplementary grants must be obtained from the National Assembly.

On the question of Rs2 per kg excise duty on clinker, the meeting was informed by the officials of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) that the federal excise duty was being charged on the import of clinker which is adjustable. The meeting was further informed that duty has been reduced from Rs 2 per kg to Rs 1.5 per kg in finance Act 2020. The finance committee was satisfied from the FBR response and settled the issue.

Senator Mir Kabir Khan said that he has asked the question that how many people from his provinces (Balochistan) have been working on grade 18 and above and the information provided showed that in finance ministry and its department provincial quota was not being followed and people of his province have been provided less seats. The committee decided to call secretary establishment division in the next meeting to brief the committee that why any province was given less seats compared to allocated quota in federal government. Sentor Musaddik Malik wanted that along with Balochistan, data of people of other provinces working in the federal government should also be provided.

Senator Muhammad Afridi said that the people of erstwhile FATA were promised during the tenure of previous government that after merger these areas would be provided exemption from the taxes by 2023 and new industries would be established for development of these areas. He said that a resolution was also approved by the Senate in this regard. He added that from last six month federal excise duty has been imposed which was discouraging new industries. The FBR explained that if FED was not imposed industries from other parts of the country would be shifted to erstwhile FATA. The FBR further stated that at this point in time it was not possible for the Board to provide about the information with regard to collection of FED and number of factories. The committee sought details of FED collection and number of industries from the FBR.