ISLAMABAD: Despite announcements of ending Statutory Regulatory Orders (SROs), the government has issued about 228 SROs during its current tenure.
Federal Finance Minister Ishaq Dar told the Senate that the government has also abolished the powers of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) through the Finance Act 2015 to issue exemptions orders.
However, he told the Upper House that only 15 out of 228 SROs were issued with the approval of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet.
The minister said the government had also reviewed the existing concessionary regime under various SROs. “Entire concessionary regime has been reviewed by a high powered committee which had recommended a three year time span for elimination of concessionary SROs in three phases. Two out of three phases have been completed,” he said.
The report, presented by the finance minister, stated that issuance of 16 new SROs under the income tax ordinance (ITO) of 2001 between Jan 1, 2016 to May 2016 and five of them were under the ECC approval while another six were described as procedural. Also, a total of 38 SROs under the ITO 2001 between January and December 2015 and only six of them were under ECC’s approval and 21 were described as procedural.
A total of 12 SROs under the ITO were issued between July 1 and Dec 31, 2014 and none of them had the ECC’s approval. Under the same law, the government issued 16 orders between July 1, 2013 and June 30, 2014 and none were in line with ECC’s approval.
The finance ministry said 75 SROs were issued between July 1, 2013 till July 21, 2016 under the Sales Tax Act and only one of them was issued with ECC’s approval. Likewise, 11 SROs were issued during the same period under federal excise powers without the approval of the ECC.
The number of SROs issued under the Customs Act of 1969 stood at 62 between July 2013 and July 2016 and the government did not report if they had the ECC’s approval.
