In a surprising development, it has emerged that the government got the approval of the National Assembly for the Finance Bill 2023 without providing copies of the final Bill to the members of the assembly.
ProPakistani has confirmed from its sources that the relevant departments are still in the process of drafting the final Finance Bill 2023. The development was also reported separately by senior economic journalist Mubarak Zeb Khan.
پاکستان کی تاریخ میں بہت ہی نایاب کہانی ہے کہ نامکمل فنانس بل 2023 پارلیمنٹ میں جلد بازی میں منظور کر لیا گیا جبکہ محکمہ ٹیکس ابھی تک بل میں ترامیم پر کام کر رہا ہے۔ توقع ہے کہ بل آج رات دیر گئے ویب سائٹ پر اپ لوڈ کر دیا جائے گا۔
— Mubarak Zeb Khan (@mubarakzebdawn) June 25, 2023
In his tweet, the journalist also pointed out that Finance Bill 2023, for which the approval of the National Assembly was sought was incomplete. Zeb highlighted that relevant departments are still working on amendments and they will be incorporated in the Bill before it is finally uploaded in its final form later tonight.
Why the Bill has been rushed through NA?
The government has very little time to sort matters with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the drastic amendments announced yesterday by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar have been introduced under pressure from the IMF.
With the loan program set to expire on June 30, the government only has a matter of days to iron out any other issues with the global lender. Questions would be raised on such an “approval” but the government is likely to brush them aside as it focuses on its target of securing the staff-level agreement with the IMF.
