Senators express opposition to FBR restructuring plan

• Senate committee summons caretaker law minister. 
• Minister to be asked whether interim govt empowered to amend laws.
• FBR chairman confirmed restructuring plan to senate panel. 

ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on Finance has voiced strong opposition to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) restructuring plan amid the chairman’s briefing that over 1,000 laws would have to be changed to operationalise the upcoming bifurcated structure, reported The News on Thursday.

The senators also expressed shock over the law ministry’s stance that the caretaker government was empowered to bring key legislations.

The committee has now decided to summon the caretaker law minister in the next meeting to get an explanation on whether the interim government was empowered to introduce or amend laws in the absence of parliament.

Senator Saadia Abbasi took a strong exception over the caretaker’s move to bring about such key changes in the FBR restructuring plan and asked the government to leave it to the upcoming government to take this decision.

The senator’s reaction came in response to the briefing given on the news circulating in the media concerning the restructuring of FBR.

The FBR chairman confirmed the restructuring plan and shared that it was finalising the required amendments to the FBR Act

The Senate body also discussed the motion moved by Senator Zarqa Suharwardy on controlling the non-development expenditure of the government.

The finance secretary stated that the government was complying with austerity measures, resulting in government spending for the current fiscal year staying within the budget.

The committee directed the Finance Division to provide details of the budget saved following the issuance of austerity measures notification issued by the Finance Division.

Moreover, the Senate committee also expressed alarm over a public petition where one complainant alleged that their family sent out Rs416 million to a bank in Karachi in 2017, which went missing when they were outside the country.

SBP Governor Jameel Ahmed stated that it was an internal rift due to which this episode occurred. However, the committee members argued that the SBP was protecting the bank instead of the depositors. The committee decided to summon the chairman of the bank, FIA, SBP and other law enforcement agencies to come up with facts of this case.

The aggrieved party apprised the committee that they had transferred the amount to a bank in Karachi in 2017. However, last year when they went to the bank for withdrawal, the bank replied that they had already withdrawn the amount and closed their account.