QEUTTA: The Balochistan Assembly has called upon the federation to allow the provincial government to collect taxes from the factories established in the province such as the OGDCL, PPL and Mari Gas. It also sought Rs16 billion outstanding water charges from the Sindh government.
The demands were made through an adjournment motion, which was adopted as a resolution.
Opening the discussion on the adjournment motion, which was approved on Friday, PkMAP MPA Agha Liaqat Ali said that under the 18th Amendment the province had been empowered by the federal government to issue a license to any company for exploration of oil, gas and minerals in the province, but the federation was ignoring this point and issuing licences to companies on its own.
Recently, he said, the PPL was awarded the licence for Kharan and the Mari Gas Company was issued a licence for Harnai. These companies do not submit any audit reports to the provincial government and the government does not object to it, he said.
He said the PPL owed Rs15 billion to Balochistan and its license had expired. The government of Balochistan had the right to stop these companies form working. He said that several factories were working at the Hub Industrial Estate and under the constitution any province where such factories would be established would collect the tax, but Balochistan had been deprived of this right.
He said that a federal secretary through a letter allowed the Sindh government to collect tax from factories in Hub. The Sindh government was collecting these taxes for the last 18 years and now this amount had reached Rs128 billion. The government of Sindh was not paying these taxes to Balochistan. Similarly, he said, it was not paying Rs16 billion to Balochistan under the water head. He said the province had been deprived of its full share of the Indus water because gates had been erected in Sindh. He appealed to the provincial government to form a committee of experts to resolve these issues.
Former Balochistan chief minister Dr Abdul Malik Baloch said that the Sui gas plant licence had expired and the federal government had been informed accordingly. He said the federal government had suggested doubling the package for the province in case of renewal of the license, which the provincial government had not approved yet.
Baloch said there was a chance of Balochistan to receive full share of its water from Sindh River; therefore, the province needed more canals. He said the federal government did not build the Kirthar Dam.
Shahida Rauf of the JUI said the federal government should accept constitutional rights of Balochistan and convene a meeting of the National Finance Commission as soon as possible.
Provincial Minister Abdul Rahim Ziaratwal supported the resolution and said that Balochistan was suffering a loss of billion of rupees in tax collection and other heads. This issue would be taken up with the centre, he said.
The speaker ruled that adjournment motion was adopted as resolution.
Also, the Balochistan Assembly unanimously passed a resolution seeking effective representation of Balochistan in the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.
