Dec 08 , 2015
News
Ordinance not aimed at PIA privatisation, Dar tells NA
Says rights of employees to be protected; no change in balance sheet or nature of service; number of PIA aircraft increased from 18 in June 2013 to 38 now; inflation coming down; opposition walks out to protest PIA’s privatisation, Rs40 bn mini-budget
ISLAMABAD: As the combined opposition on Monday staged a walkout from the National Assembly (NA) against the promulgation of an ordinance which turned the national flag carrier into a private company limited, Minister for Finance Senator Ishaq Dar assured the National Assembly that the rights of employees had not been compromised and it would result in the financial and operational improvement of the organisation.The House also witnessed an exchange of angry words between Opposition Leader Syed Khursheed Shah and Minister of State for Defence Production Rana Tanveer Hussain during the Question-Hour.
In response to a speech of the opposition leader, the state minister said he would also respond to a story told by Khursheed Shah. On that, the opposition leader said it was the government and not the opposition which narrates stories.
The opposition parties, including the Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPPP), Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), Qaumi Watan Party (QWP) and Awami Muslim League (AML) walked out from the house demanding the withdrawal of the ordinance. “Tell us when you withdraw the ordinance and we will return to the house,” Shah said while leading the walkout.
Dar said the objective of the ordinance was to turn PIA into a corporate entity so that it operates in an autonomous manner. “Through the ordinance, the assets and liabilities of PIA have been transferred to the company,” he said
He said the ordinance was not aimed at the privatisation of PIA as was being propagated and there was also no change in its balance sheet or nature of service of the employees.
Dar said PIA was suffering from huge losses and the government had taken several measures for its restructuring. “As a result, the number of its operational aircraft has increased from 18 in June 2013 to 38 now and two more aircraft would hopefully be added this month,” he said.
He said PIA had achieved 82% punctuality of flights and it was close to the world’s top airlines in this regard which was the Qatar Airlines with 87% and Emirates 84% punctuality.
Giving a policy statement in the NA on recent taxation, the minister said the taxes had been imposed on import of luxury and non-essential items and, therefore, would not affect the common man.
He said 5% to 10% duty had been imposed on 61 non-essential and luxury items while regulatory duty on 289 items had been enhanced by 5%. “The duties have been imposed and increased on items which are imported and are not essential items,” he said.
He said that one percent additional regulatory duty had been imposed across the board but here again on essential items and those required for development purposes had been exempted.
Dar said the main beneficiary of the increased revenue collection would be the provinces which get 57.5% share of the federal divisible pool while the federal government gets only 42.5%.
He said in addition, the federal government provides special one percent share to KP on account of war on terror, grant to Sindh to compensate for abolition of octroi and special grant to Balochistan.
He urged the political parties not to politicise the economic issues as increase in revenue generation was necessary to take the country forward.
He expressed the confidence that the government would achieve the tax collection targets for the current quarter and already October had witnessed 22 percent growth in tax collection and November 28 percent.
Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said the government was compelled to go to the IMF to repay the debt taken by the previous government during the year 2010-2011. He said substantial IMF repayments were due during the last two years and the government also paid one billion dollars from its own sources.
He said the budget deficit, which was 8.8% when the PPP government left, had come down to 5.3% and this year it would further come down to 4.3%.
Referring to apprehensions that the taxation measures would lead to price hike, the minister said there was an average 12 percent inflation rate up to 2013, which has been reduced to only 4.3 percent last year and it was 1.86 percent during the five months of the current financial year. He said there has also been a 40pc increase in tax assessees during the tenure of the present government.
Khursheed Shah, rising on a point of order, said the government had bypassed parliament and the Council of Common Interests (CCI) while promulgating the PIA ordinance.
He questioned as to why the government was in a hurry to privatise the PIA. “Some fingers are also being pointed at Saifur Rehman who is a friend of the prime minister and wants to purchase PIA,” he said. He said on the night of December 6, the ordinance was promulgated and PIA was registered as a limited company by especially opening its offices. He said that repealing the PIA Act 1956 was the jurisdiction of parliament.
The NA speaker cut short the Question-Hour to 15 minutes to give time to points of order of the opposition leader and parliamentary leaders of other opposition parties. “The Question-Hour is important, there are other issues like the PIA ordinance and new taxation by the government,” Khursheed Shah said.
The parliamentary leaders of the opposition parties, including Shah Mehmood Qureshi (PTI), Sufyan Yousuf (MQM), Aftab Sherpao (QWP), Sahibzada Tariqullah (JI) and Shaikh Rasheed Ahmad (AML), also condemned the promulgation of the ordinance saying the government had compromised supremacy of parliament.
Khursheed Shah said that his party was against the privatisation of government organisations saying the meeting of the CCI should be called to take up the issue.
Shah Mehmood Qureshi also condemned the promulgation of the ordinance saying that it should have been brought in parliament in the form of a bill.—Published in The News
Courtesy www.geo.tv