Allies and opposition parties demand to fix RGST at 10 percent

Government allies and opposition parties in Senate have demanded to cut the rate of Reformed General Sales Tax (RGST) from 15 percent to 10 percent. Senate chairman gave ruling that this is the finance bill and its passage from the Senate is not necessary and Speaker National Assembly can directly send it to the President for approval. Taking part in the debate over RGST in the Senate session, PML-Ns Ishaq Dar said that the country was owing to pay Rs 9500 billion foreign loans which needs cut in expenditures instead of imposing RGST. PML-Qs Haroon Akhtar said that RGST rate should be fixed at 10 percent. S. M. Zafar said that new taxes will open the door for corruption. MQMs Haseeb Khan asked to implement agricultural tax. Babar Awan said that agricultural tax was a provincial matter. JUI Maulana Gul Naseeb said that mismanagement and non-development expenditures cause more damage and the government can save more money by improving management and cutting expenditures. Tahir Mashhadi said that 400 billion rupees corruption was made during last year in the wake of RGST.