Islamabad: Pakistani Senate, or the upper house of Parliament, passed the recommendations for levying reformed general sales tax (GST) on Friday amid a huge uproar by government allies and opposition parties.
The Muttahida Qaumi Movement and Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam, sitting in the cabinet with the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), decided to oppose the new tax structure that aims to expand the tax net and bring in sectors that were exempted earlier.
Only Awami National Party, another government ally, chose to side with the treasury after initially announcing rejection of the proposals.
The opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) voted against the bill, while the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) chose to walk out instead of voting against the recommendations. The opposition parties also raised slogans against the bill and thumped desks to display their resentment.
Earlier scheme
The reformed GST envisages levying a flat 15 per cent sales tax on almost all sectors instead of the earlier scheme in which 17-25 per cent was imposed on a few sectors. It is expected that an additional Rs50 billion (Dh2.14 billion) will be generated annually with this new tax structure.
PML-N Senator Pervez Rashid alleged that PML-Q had "played dirty by walking out". "Otherwise, it would have been difficult for the government to get it passed with simple majority." "It is tantamount to treason with the general public," he regretted.
Senator Wasim Sajjad of PML-Q, though, argued that "it is not a voting on the bill as such but only the recommendations". "We vehemently oppose it and did not want to give this exercise any semblance of validity by participating in the voting process," he observed. Finance Minister Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, on the occasion, said that "the propaganda against the proposed reformed GST bill is baseless".
