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Saturday, February 25, 2012

PML-N moves adjournment motion against radio tax

Staff Report

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on Friday submitted an adjournment motion in the National Assembly against the government’s decision to implement radio tax in cellular phone sector, saying the government would not be allowed to impose the tax.
The top leadership of the party made the decision, following which, it was decided that the party would raise a strong voice against the new tax. The PML-N members of parliament filed an adjournment motion in the National Assembly, asking the House to take notice of the decision to impose another tax which, they said, would add to the miseries of the people.
The draft of the motion said that gas load-shedding, petroleum prices, electricity load-shedding, unemployment, and other issues were already affecting the lives of the general public. It said the new tax would make the lives of the poor across the country more difficult, and hence needed to be strongly opposed.
Recently, during a meeting of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting, PML-N parlimentarians, including Begum Nuzhat Aamir, Malik Shakeel Awan and Rana Nazir, who are also members of the standing committee, raised their voice to oppose the imposition of the new tax in telecom sector, saying it was injustice to the crises-hit poor of the country.
The tax would also affect the poor people who did not use cell phones for entertainment purposes, but kept the devices for essential communication only, the PML-N leaders said. They said the charges being levied for mobile communication were already difficult to pay for the poor people and imposition of the new tax would make the situation worse.
Sources said that it was expected that the PML-N would manage to gain the attention and sympathies of the masses by raising voice against the tax and highlighting the problems people were facing due to inflation in the country.
On the other hand, sources said, despite financial crises, Pakistan Broadcast Corporation (PBC) Managing Director Murtaza Solangi, who is a close friend of President Asif Ali Zardari, was continuously making foreign trips and was not ready to reduce this expenditure that directly affected the budget of the institution. The employees of the PBC were facing the issue of delayed salaries for a long time, but the higher management of the organisation was not ready to take action.

Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk

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