Islamabad:
The National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Funding on Wednesday raised several questions regarding sugar imports and the delivery of exemptions during its meeting led by Syed Naveed Qamar.
The committee also took various legislative agenda items, including the parliamentary budget office bill and a proposed fine -tuning to the legislation on social responsibility.
Members also asked officials for a meeting between the government and the business representatives on certain budgetary measures.
The chairman, who addressed the issue of sugar imports, asked for clarification from officials. The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Chairman Rashid Langrial replied that the Ministry of National Food Safety would be in a better position to answer. However, Qamar insisted that FBR must have played a role.
Langrial explained that FBR had implemented the federal cabinet’s decision to reduce VAT of 18% and 20% duty on sugar imports. “Reducing taxes and duties on sugar lowers its price in the local market,” he told the committee.
However, the chairman of the committee suggested that the government should withdraw from involvement in the sugar sector because there was no shortage of the product in the country.
Committee Member Javed Hanif asked about the international monetary funds (IMF} position on the sugar import. In response, federal financial secretary Imdad Ullah Bosal said they were negotiating with the lender and adding that the government should implement the IMF’s conditions.
Later, the President raised a request for the negotiations between the government and the business people about the issue of their protest. Prime Minister for Financing Bilal Azhar Kayani replied that talks were held on Tuesday and a committee has been set up to find solution to the controversial questions within a month.
Meanwhile, a report from the Sub -Committee on the Law on Social Responsibility in the meeting in the meeting. While the review of amendments to the law, the committee was told that Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) opposed the changes.
The SECP chairman informed the committee that these changes would increase operating costs for businesses. However, the President noted that the company’s social responsibility could not be left exclusively to the discretion of the private sector.
The SECP manager said the question had only come up for oil and gas companies, but it was used for all companies. Financial secretary supported SECP’s claim and said “doing so would increase corporate production costs”.
Committee member Nafisa Shah pointed out that companies already paid 18% VAT and super tax, yet the Ministry of Finance seemed to object specifically to the social sector expenses. She added that although the law requires companies to allocate 1% of their profits to CSR, many used in addition to this threshold.
Prime Minister Kayani suggested that the Ministry of Finance and SECP should bring their proposals after hearing the companies. Committee member Mirza Ikhtiar Baig said that all chambers for trade and industry and multinational companies were heard of this law.
The Financial Secretary requested the committee for more time to consider the matter.
