ISLAMABAD-Speaker National Assembly Asad Qaiser on Friday referred the issue of agriculture tubewell subsidy of farmers community to National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance with the directions to submit the report to the house within the next 10 days.
The Speaker directed the Minister for Power, Petroleum and Natural
Resources Omar Ayub to direct Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of power distribution companies to meet with farmers for resolving their problems.
The Speaker issued directions during the discussion on a Calling Attention Notice moved in the National Assembly by Sardar Talib Hassan Nakai, Haji Imtiaz Ahmed Choudhary, Syed Faiz-ul-Hassan and Khawaja Sheraz Mehmood regarding enormous electricity bills of tubewells and non payment of subsidy to farmers community.
Responding to the calling attention notice, Minister for Power, Petroleum and Natural Resources Omar Ayub said finance ministry was devising a mechanism for paying Rs 62 billion subsidy for agriculture tubewells and Ministry of Energy was the executing authority for giving subsidy. Prime Minister had issued instructions to finance ministry to support the agriculture sector.
Omar Ayub said the flat rate of Rs 5.35 per unit was announced for agriculture tubewells. The fluctuations in the rate of fuel adjustment surcharge and General Sales Tax also varied, creating impact on the overall flat rate.
He said the actual subsidy was Rs 29 billion and after adding fuel adjustment surcharge the subsidy rose to Rs 51 billion and after including General Sales Tax and fluctuation in dollar rupee ratio, the accumulative subsidy on agriculture tubewells reached Rs 62 billion.
Meanwhile Parliamentary Reporters Associations staged walkout from the press gallery. The Speaker sent State Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan for holding negotiations with PRA who later told the house about his discussion with the journalists.
The Speaker referred the issue of non payment of salaries to mediapersons to National Assembly Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting for further deliberations.