Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The National Testing Services (NTS) should be closed down as it is fleecing educated youth, said the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Finance.

The body met on Tuesday under the chairmanship of Qaiser Ahmed Sheikh.

To a point of objection by Siraj Khan, the NTS chairman said the organisation is not making money. He said most of the government functionaries are not capable to conduct recruitment tests, whereas NTS is holding exams on tehsil level. To PML-N MNA Abdul Manan’s question about the audit of NTS, the NTS head said the auditor general of Pakistan has conducted the audit for the first time.

The committee chairman said the NA speaker has transferred the matter to the Standing Committee on Science and Technology to which the members protested and suggested to carry out a detailed audit of NTS.

The committee has recommended taking property sector in the amenity scheme under which black money of approximately Rs 7 trillion would be laundered. Under the scheme, the landlord who holds the property could avoid investigations by telling the government accurate value of the property and giving one percent tax on it. As no one would ask about the source of wealth from which he bought the property.

Convener of subcommittee Abdul Manan said the business was stopped due to levying of tax on property sector. He asked the government to accept the recommendations of the subcommittee for the betterment of the business community.

Under the bill, the property having value of Rs 5 million would be exempted from tax, earlier the limit was Rs 4 million.

During the meeting, the members lashed at the policies of the government on agriculture. They said the government is continuously ignoring the agriculture sector. The committee also showed resentment over the feeding of doubtful figures and facts by the government.

The committee also discussed the matter of agricultural loans by Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited. ZTBL Senior Executive Vice President Nadeem Chohan said the institution had disbursed loans of Rs 95 billion to the farmers in FY 2015-16, whereas the recovery of Rs 88 billion was made during that period. The bank has paid Rs 3.88 billion tax, he added.

Committee member Rao Ajmal said the ZTBL is providing loans to small growers at 15 percent markup, which is much higher than other banks. If someone fails to repay the debt, the bank confiscates his property, he added.

On which the bank president said the ZTBL is paying Rs 4 billion tax to the government per annum and if this tax would be written off, the bank would be in position to offer soft loans to the farmers. The committee proposed 7 percent interest rate on ZTBL’s loans to farmers.

The finance secretary assured the meeting that this is an important issue and if the committee would recommend something on it the government would definitely think over it.