While protesting against the increase of sales tax on petroleum products from 17 percent to 22 percent, Opposition Leader Khursheed Shah termed the move as ‘injustice’ to the people of Pakistan.
In the international market, petrol prices have gone down up to 54 USD per barrel, but its benefit was not transferred to the people in Pakistan.
The government will earn an additional Rs 110 billion with the recent hike in sales tax, while the government says that it will only get Rs 17 billion.
The Opposition Leader demanded the government to withdraw the hike in sales tax immediately. He referred to it as ‘unconstitutional’ and slammed that the way government imposed GST; there is no example of it in Pakistan’s history.
The Speaker of the National Assembly, Sardar Ayaz Sadiq requested the members to stop the Opposition Leader from walking out of the House, but Khursheed Shah did not oblige and departed.
On this occasion, MQM’s Rasheed Godial said that the government is not capable of collecting the taxes, but it keeps exploiting the poor through heavy taxations.
After Godial’s address, MQM members also walked out of the NA session.
