ISLAMABAD, Oct 12: The recent imposition of tax on incoming overseas phone calls caused a stir in the Senate on Friday.

Members on both sides of the aisle rejected it and termed it a burden on expatriate Pakistanis. The MQM staged a walkout and demanded immediate withdrawal of the tax.

Under the new arrangement effective from Oct 1, overseas Pakistanis will find it expensive to call their loved ones back home.

The issue was raised in the house through a call-attention notice by the MQM, PPP and PML-Q Senators. It ignited a discussion involving members of other parties as well, prompting Chairman Nayyar Hussain Bokhari to remind the Senators that rules did not allow a debate on such a notice.

MQM’s Tahir Hussain Mashhadi urged the government to withdraw the tax.

The leader of opposition, Ishaq Dar, criticised the government for failing to handle the issue of grey traffic. He claimed that some influential people, including ministers, were involved in the business.

He said the country was suffering a loss of $200 million every year because of the grey traffic.

“The Federal Board of Revenue’s Connivance with the telecommunication companies (in this regard) was an open secret,” he alleged.

PML-Q’s Kamil Ali Agha saw a conspiracy and corruption behind the tax and said the decision (to impose it) was aimed at providing benefits to the companies which transferred the calls.

He said it was unjust to put burden on the people who sent remittances to the tune of $14 billion to the country.

Mian Raza Rabbani of the PPP asked the chairman to refer the matter to the standing committee concerned.

He said all regulatory authorities, including the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, must be under the control of parliament. He said representatives of cartels and vested interests were hell-bent to crush the people economically.

The leader of the house surprised many when he revealed that he had been informed by the PTA that it only implemented the decision which had been ‘taken by someone else’.

He said more than one ministry were involved in the process leading to the imposition of the tax. He said the objective of the tax was to ensure parity between the outgoing and incoming calls.

Jahangir Badr said the tax would yield $500 million revenue to the exchequer each year.

The chairperson of the standing committee, Kulsoom Perveen, said the issue was already with the committee which would meet on Oct 18. She invited the movers of the notice to attend the meeting.

The chair ruled that since a house committee was already seized with the matter there was no need to refer it to any other committee.

Ghost schools

Earlier during the question hour, the house was informed that the number of ghost schools in the country had declined from 20,000 to around 800.

Minister of State for Education and Training Sardar Shahjahan Yusuf said cases of financial embezzlement against four provincial directors of the basic education community schools project of the National Education Foundation were being investigated.

He said the cases of ghost schools had been referred to the National Accountability Bureau and the Federal Investigation Agency.

NDMA: Minister for Climate Change Rana Mohammad Farooq Saeed Khan said the National Disaster Management Authority had a staff of 136 people.

He said that in collaboration with UN partners the NDMA had organised basic trainings in disaster management to the people and government officials serving in remote areas.