ISLAMABAD
The Senate standing committee on finance on Wednesday expressed serious concerns over the government’s tight control over the autonomous regulators – the State Bank of Pakistan and the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) – and members even recommended closing of the energy regulator if it, at the least, could not even notify prices of petroleum products on its own.
The committee was chaired by Senator Saleem Mandviwala. He said that the government was artificially trying to maintain the dollar rupee parity. He wanted to know the reasons why dollar price appreciated within few hours and why the central bank failed to intervene timely enough.
State Bank Governor Tariq Bajwa declined to discuss details before the media presence in the committee. He assured a detailed briefing in camera to the committee without media presence. The committee accepted his demand and a detailed briefing were held in camera.
Earlier, the committee had summoned the State Bank Deputy Governor Riaz Raziuddin to ascertain whether he felt pressurised by the government to not disclose full facts before the Joint Investigation Team investigating corruption allegations against the former premier Nawaz Sharif.
Senator Saud Majeed and Ayesha Farooq stressed to leave the matter as prime minister already stood disqualified. However, Mandviwala said it was important to know whether pressure was exerted and some kind of tempering was done with the records.
However, Raziuddin denied the charge. He said all the record was provided to JIT after seeking legal opinion and information was also obtained from some commercial banks. About his absence from last standing committee meeting, he claimed that he did not receive the invitation and agenda of the last meeting.
Chairman FBR informed the meeting that FBR managed a collection of Rs 3.36 trillion against a target of Rs 3.5 trillion from the last fiscal year. He said that the relief provided to export industries, agriculture sector and relief in petroleum prices led to a decline in tax revenue last fiscal year.
Senator Kamil Agha expressed shock over the increase in sales tax on petroleum products without government approval. He said that at a time when there was no prime minister, cabinet or the relevant ministers how the sales tax on petroleum products could be increased.
Senator Mandviwala noted that if OGRA could not even notify change in petroleum prices on its own, then there was no use retaining the regulatory body. It should be closed.
The committee also expressed concern over the heavy taxation on the mobile telecom sector. Senators said that the taxes collected by the mobile operators were not truly reflected in the tax revenue figure and there was massive bleeding in the sector.
The committee recommended a forensic audit of the mobile telecom sector to ascertain the truth.
