NWFP opposition wants agricultural tax waived
By Zakir Hassnain
PESHAWAR: The opposition in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) Assembly on Tuesday strongly criticised the agricultural income tax, demanding the provincial government either waive it or give maximum relief to poor farmers.
Opening the debate on the agricultural income tax, abyana (water tax), katchi abadis (slums) and affidavit taxes, Abdul Akbar Khan, the parliamentary leader of the Pakistan People’s Party-Parliamentarians (PPPP), said it was an income tax but the government was taking a fixed tax on agricultural income from farmers and landowners.
He described the tax as “gundda tax”.
He said it was a “violation” of the law because the government was receiving a fixed tax on farmers’ income.
Mr Khan argued that sometimes crops were damaged due to natural calamities and sometimes farmers did not get enough produce and suffered losses. “So, how can you get a fixed tax from them?” he asked the treasury benches. He added the government had also been increasing the fixed tax every year.
The PPPP leader said farmers in Punjab having 25 jareebs of land were exempt from agriculture taxes while the Sindh government had given exemption to farmers having 32 jareebs of land. Mr Khan demanded the agriculture tax be waived, because the NWFP was the poorest province where 80 percent were living in villages and their source of income was agriculture.
He said the government should at least exempt people having 20 jareebs of land if it could not do away with this tax. He also said the tax should not be crop-oriented.
On abyana, the PPPP leader said the Punjab government was receiving abyana according to the per-acre of land formula. “Our government should also levy abyana on per acre,” he suggested.
Amanat Shah from the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal demanded landowners having 15 to 20 jareebs of land be exempted from paying the agriculture income tax.
PPP-Sherpao’s Jamshaid Khan said there should be no taxes on farmers in the MMA government.
NWFP Assembly Speaker Bakht Jehan said the government committee and standing committee of the assembly should sit together to make a comprehensive report on the tax issue.
Minister Raja Faisal Zaman proposed the standing committee, and the committee formed by the government, should meet to debate the issue and make a decision, which should be in the interest of poor people.
On the slums issue, Bashir Ahmed Bilour, the parliamentary leader of the Awami National Party (ANP), said the Punjab government had given ownership rights to slum-dwellers and the NWFP government should also follow them. Mr Bilour said Sindh and Punjab were using 11,000 cusecs of water of the NWFP and demanded they be asked to pay for it. “Thus the money collected can be used to waive abyana to our people,” he said.
MMA’s Maulana Nizamuddin and Abdul Majid Khan complained about faulty tube-wells.
In their joint call attention notice, Riffat Akbar Swati and Nasreen Khattak of the PPP-Sherpao and Nighat Yasmeen Orakzai from the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid-e-Azam, again raised the issue of edible oil donated by the World Food Programme (WFP) for schoolchildren in district Mansehra.
Later, the speaker adjourned the house until today (Wednesday).
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default...-3-2004_pg7_26
Private sector’s role in tourism stressed
LAHORE: Speakers at a seminar titled Tourism Promotion in Pakistan, organised by the Pakistan Tourism Promotion Council (PTPC) on Monday, called for the involvement of the private sector and more seminars to promote tourism.
Punjab Minister for Fisheries Jam Mohammed Hashim, the chief guest, said Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi was committed to promote tourism in the province. “The chief minister understands that tourism has become an industry and is taking various steps to promote the sector capable of earning foreign exchange,” Mr Hashim said. The deputy managing director of the Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation said the corporation was working on policy to promote tourism internationally.
Sarhad Tourism Development Corporation Managing Director Mohammed Mushtaq said his department was giving all facilities to tourists in the Northern Areas.
“Pakistan has all the beauty a country can offer to tourists and has a great potential to attract foreign tourists,” said the PTPC chairman. —Staff Report
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default...-3-2004_pg7_28