ISLAMABAD – The National Assembly was informed on Friday that governmenthas exempted Information Technology and IT enabled services from income taxon export till June 2025 to bolster their exports.
Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan told thehouse during question hour that the IT is emerging as a vital organ of ournational economy and government is paying great deal of heed to promotethis sector.
He said two IT Parks are being established in Pakistan with the cooperationof Korean government. He said work on the first IT Park in Islamabad hasalready been started whilst the second IT Park will be established inKarachi to further strengthen this sector.
Ali Muhammad Khan told the house that two million applications have so farbeen received under Naya Pakistan Housing project. He said under this megaproject, loans will be given to the poorest segments of the society tobuild their houses without charging any interest from them as thegovernment will incur this cost.
The Minister of State clarified that BISP is not being renamed. He said thegovernment has started a comprehensive Ehsaas Program and enhanced itsallocations to 190 billion rupees from 100 billion rupees. He said underthis initiative several programs are being launched for the poor segmentsof the society.
Ali Muhammad Khan said the Information Commission has been made functionaland it is addressing the appeals received under Right of Access toInformation Act 2017. He said since its establishment, the informationcommission has disposed of more than 100 appeals out of 265 receivedappeals.
Parliamentary Secretary for Education Wajiha Akram said that despiteeconomic constraints, promotion of education including higher education ispriority of the government. She said that initiatives such as Kamyab Jawanand Ehsaas Programs also envisage the component of education.
Responding to a calling attention notice, Minister for National FoodSecurity Makhdum Khusro Bakhtyar said a plan of action has been prepared incoordination with the stakeholders to save our agriculture sector from theinvasion of locusts. He said this plan will be executed in the next one anda half years at a cost of 7.30 billion rupees. Five billion rupees will beprovided by the federal government.
Read Top Stories
The Minister said that aerial sprays have been carried out in Sindh andSouth Punjab to save the crops from the attack of locusts. He said as aresult of emergency measures, Kharif crop has been saved from these swarms.
Responding to another calling attention notice, Minister for AviationGhulam Sarwar Khan told the house that the government has enhanced therevenue of Pakistan International Airline to 146 billion rupees whilstreducing its deficit from 29 billion rupees in 2018 to eleven billionrupees in 2019. He said efforts are afoot to bring improvement in thenational flag carrier.
Five bills were introduced in the House today.
These included; “The Anti-Terrorism Amendment bill 2020, The Post OfficeCash Certificate (Amendment) Bill, 2020, The Post Office National SavingsCertificate (Amendment) Bill, 2020, The government savings Bank (Amendment)Bill, 2020 and the Emigration (Amendment) Bill, 2020.
The House will now meet again on Monday at 4 p.m.
