Islamabad:
The Standing Committee of the National Assembly on Finance raised several questions on sugar imports on Wednesday and the performance of rights exemptions at its meeting chaired by Syed Naveed Qamar.
The Committee has also taken up various articles of the legislative program, in particular the bill on the parliamentary office budget and an adjustment proposed to the law on corporate social responsibility.
Members also questioned civil servants about a meeting between the government and the commercial representatives concerning certain budgetary measures.
Addressing the question of imports of sugar, the president asked for clarification of managers. The president of the Federal Board of Return (FBR), Rashid Langrial, replied that the Ministry of National Food Security would be better placed to respond. However, Qamar insisted that the FBR should have played a role.
Langrial explained that the FBR had implemented the federal firm’s decision to reduce the sales tax by 18% and customs duties by 20% on imports of sugar. “The reduction in taxes and rights over sugar reduces its price on the local market,” he told the Committee.
However, the chairman of the committee suggested that the government is withdrawing from involvement in the sugar sector, because there was no shortage of goods in the country.
The committee member, Javed Hanif, asked questions about the post of international monetary funds (IMF} on the import of sugar. In response, the federal secretary in the field of Imdad Ullah Bosal finance said that they negotiated with the lender, adding that the government should implement the IMF conditionalities.
Later, the president raised a question about talks between the government and businessmen about the issue of their protest. The Minister of State for Finance Bilal Azhar Kayani replied that talks had taken place on Tuesday and that a committee was set up to find a solution to controversial questions in a month.
Meanwhile, a report of the subcommittee of the corporate social responsibility law was presented at the meeting. While examining the changes in the law, the Committee was informed that the Pakistan (SECP) securities commission opposed the changes.
The president of the SECP informed the committee that these changes would increase the operational costs of companies. However, the President noted that corporate social responsibility could only be left to the discretion of the private sector.
The head of the SECP said that the problem had only been raised for oil and gas companies, but that it was applied to all companies. The finance secretary supported the statement of the SECP, saying that “this would increase the cost of production of companies”.
Nafisa Shah, member of the committee, stressed that companies already paid 18% sales tax and super taxes, but the Ministry of Finance seemed to be specifically opposed to the spending of the social sector. She added that even if the law obliges companies to allocate 1% of their CSR profits, many were going beyond this threshold.
Minister of State Kayani suggested that the Ministry of Finance and SECP should provide their proposals after consulting the companies. Mirza Ikhtiar Baig, member of the Committee, said that all chambers of commerce and industry and multinational companies had been consulted on this law.
The finance secretary asked the Committee for more time to examine the issue.