KARACHI  -  The Sindh Assembly on Wednesday adopted a bill relating to imposition of sales tax on property in the province amid protest by the opposition parties.

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) and Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) termed the bill biased.

The provincial government tabled a bill titled Sindh Sales Tax on Services (Amendment) Bill 2018, aimed at levying and collecting sales tax on renting immovable property services from July 2015. It said the bill was meant to safeguard revenue of the provincial government.

Presenting the bill in the house, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Nisar Ahmed Khuhro said that property owners would have to pay three percent tax on rent of a building and it would be collected from 1, July 2015. It would only be applicable to urban centres of the province, excluding hostels, boarding houses and some other places.

MQM-P lawmakers who defected to the PSP expressed their serious reservations about the bill and termed it biased against urban centres of the Sindh province.

The opposition lawmakers demanded that rather than bringing every rented building under this tax net, only buildings for commercial purposes should be brought under this tax.

MQM lawmaker Muhammad Hussain said that urban centres of the province were already overburdened with taxation and the PPP wanted to turn them into areas like Thar.

“These acts will further increase urban and rural divide,” he said. He said this government has not given even a single mega project to the province despite spending Rs900 billion in seven years. He said that a probe should be conducted into utilisation of this amount.

MQM Parliamentary Syed Sardar Ahmed said that paying tax on rent does not come under GST and the court has ruled against any legislation against the public interest. “Giving a house on rent is not a commercial activity. This is a biased act and will further deepen the urban-rural divide in the province,” he said.

The MQM-P parliamentary leader said the credit for giving provinces right to collect taxes goes to Asif Zardari, but it should not be used in such a manner.

“At least 99 percent of the sales tax is collected from the urban centres and they should not be overburdened,” he said.

The senior minister clarified that only those rented building which come under the commercial activity would be taxed and the tax would be imposed in the entire province.

Earlier, the Sindh Assembly proceedings began more than an hour late with Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani in the chair. Durrani expressed annoyance over continuous delay in the assembly proceedings and said that he arrived on time in the house and waited for the members to gather in his chamber.  “It is unfortunate that lawmakers arrive late to attend the session and those who come on time spend time in galleries after marking their attendance,” he said, adding that there are even lawmakers whom he had not seen for five years and if they do not want to come then they should resign from their seats.

The PML-F lawmaker said that a system be developed to bring lawmakers to the house on time.

An adjournment motion from PTI lawmaker Khurram Sher Zaman pertaining to re-appointment of Dr Asim Hussain as Sindh HEC chairman was rejected by the house without giving him the opportunity to speak on the issue.

The PTI lawmaker later boycotted the provincial assembly proceedings. Later, talking to the media outside the assembly, Zaman said that reappointment of Dr Asim was illegal and a Canadian citizen was being rewarded.

“I wanted to tell Asif Zardari that being in majority in the assembly he could disallow anyone to speak on the issue but he could not dictate the court and justice will be dispensed from there in this case,” he said.

“I will challenge appointment of a corrupt person to this top seat as it is detrimental to the future generations of the country,” he said.

PML-F lawmaker Nusrat Sehar Abbasi raised the issue of VIP protocol in her call attention notice and said that more than 6,000 police personnel were on VIP duties, which were costing Rs2 billion in a year to the provincial exchequer.

“Outdated police vans are left to patrol. At police stations, new ones are used for VIP duties,” she said, adding that top PPP leadership, ministers and even ex-lawmakers were enjoying the protocol from the Sindh province.

Home Minister Sohail Anwer Sial, responding to this issue, rejected the figures given by the PML-F lawmaker and said that sometimes it was necessary to provide security to high profile personalities due to the prevailing law and order situation.

Nadeem Razi, who defected from MQM-P to PSP, said there were more than 260 dilapidated buildings in the province, but no steps were taken by the government for alternate arrangements.

The minister for local government said that some dilapidated buildings were declared national heritage while occupants were not ready to vacate some of them. “We are ready to form a committee to review this issue and Nadeem Razi could also be part of it,” he said.

The House was later adjourned for Thursday.

 

 

Abdullah Zafa