NA passes Finance (Supplementary) Bill, 2021 amid opposition’s reservations

Islamabad: The National Assembly (NA) passed ‘controversial’ Finance (Supplementary) Bill, 2021, (also called as mini-budget) with majority vote amid strong protest by the opposition on Thursday.

All the amendments presented by the opposition parties including Pakistan Peoples Party and Pakistan Muslim League-N had been rejected with the majority vote.

Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin tabled the bill.

The speaker ordered the vote-count for two times, during which the parliamentarians voted by standing from their seats. The both times opposition parties faced defeat with 150-168 and 146-163 votes in the presence of Prime Minister Imran Khan.

The NA session was marked by noisy protests by members of the opposition parties over the ‘mini budget’.

The session resumed under the chairmanship of NA Speaker Asad Qaiser. Prime Minister Imran Khan, Planning and Development Minister Asad Umar and Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi are also in attendance.

PPP President Asif Ali Zardari and President PML-N and Leader of the Opposition Shehbaz Sharif were also present in the House when the treasury bench knocked down opposition’s amendments with majority votes.

On the other hand, the State Bank of Pakistan (amendment) Bill, 2021 was tabled in the house for debate.

Minister for Finance Shaukat Tarin said the government had decided not to withdraw exemptions of taxes on basic items such as milk, bakery items, laptop, baby food and solar panels.

The minister said the finance supplementary bill, 2021 was aimed at documenting the country’s economy. He said the country had Rs 20 trillion worth of retail market out of which only Rs 3.5 trillion sales were documented which was alarming.

“We will have to document our economy to achieve our tax to GDP ratio target of 18 to 20% as until it is not achieved, we will not be able to maintain our fiscal balance,” he added.

He pointed out that there is unprecedented growth of 35 percent in revenue collection.

It is reminded here that the approval of the supplementary finance bill is necessary if Pakistan is to ensure sixth review of the $6 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFE) by the IMF’s Executive Board, which is scheduled to meet towards the end of this month.