ISLAMABAD: Lack of quorum forced Deputy Speaker Murtaza Javed Abbasi to prorogue National Assembly’s 30th session indefinitely on Friday.
The session was in progress when PTI lawmaker Shireen Mazari pointed out the quorum. The deputy speaker ordered counting of the members. However, the House was not in order, which led to the prorogation of the session. The 30th session was summoned on March 14 and continued till March 25. During the current session a joint session of parliament was also convened to pass a number of bills, including PIA conversion bill 2016, but the joint session was also adjourned to meet again on April 11.
Separately, replying to a calling attention notice, National Assembly Parliamentary Secretary for Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs Rana Muhammad Afzal Khan Friday said that Voluntary Tax Scheme has been extended to March 31 on the demand of traders. He said after March 31, the tax would be collected from traders according to law. Afzal Khan said it was not an amnesty scheme but Voluntary Tax Compliance Scheme for traders, to bring them into the tax net. He said the government held negotiations with traders across the board for six months to finalise the scheme.
He said the credit went to the PML-N government for bringing traders into voluntarily tax scheme, which would broaden the tax base, and through enhanced tax collection, the government would be in a position to lower the tax rates. The parliamentary secretary said the scheme was different from the previous ones, as smugglers and black marketeers could not benefit from this scheme. He said no target was fixed but the government expected that more people would join this scheme. He said foreign remittances were being monitored as per National Action Plan.
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