LAHORE: Punjab Assembly Speaker Malik Muhammad Ahmad Khan on Monday ruled that it is the discretion of the elected assembly to decide on Agricultural Tax.
He upheld parliamentary supremacy and officially struck down a notification issued by the bureaucracy regarding the imposition of Agricultural Tax. He declared that the power to levy taxes rests exclusively with the elected assembly and cannot be usurped by any executive authority.
“An executive that withholds rate-altering notifications from the Assembly at budget time does not exercise delegated powers as it usurps legislative power, and that usurpation is constitutionally impermissible,” the ruling issued by the speaker states, thus clearly instructing the bureaucracy to remain in its constitutional domain.
The speaker emphasized that the authority to impose financial burdens on the public is a fundamental prerogative of the legislature, which no government official including the senior member of the Board of Revenue is authorized to exercise. He noted that the issuance of such a notification via an executive order was a direct breach of the privilege of the Punjab Assembly and a violation of constitutional principles.
The speaker directed the Standing Committee on Law Reforms and Delegated Legislation to conduct a thorough review of the taxes imposed by the executive branch. He instructed the Law Committee to submit a comprehensive report on the matter to the House within 15 days. Following the announcement, members of the Punjab Assembly welcomed the decision with a loud thumping of desks, paying tribute to the speaker for safeguarding the constitutional rights and sovereignty of the provincial legislature.
The ruling states that the power to levy taxes is the most quintessential function of an elected legislature. “A citizen submits to a tax because those who represent him in this House have authorised it, this is what distinguishes a lawful imposition from an executive action. Articles 77 and 127 are therefore not procedural formalities, they are the constitutional embodiment of the principle that the burden of taxation requires the consent of the taxed, expressed through their elected representatives in this assembly. Delegation of rate-making power to the executive is constitutionally permissible but delegation is not abdication. Such power must be exercised strictly within the conditions the parliament has imposed, including the mandatory requirement to lay rate-altering rules before this assembly at budget time.”
“The legislature retains oversight; it does not surrender sovereignty. The speaker is the guardian of the constitutional rights, privileges, and financial sovereignty of this House. Financial privilege is the exclusive right of the elected legislature to authorise, scrutinise, and control all taxation among the most ancient and jealously guarded privileges of any parliament in a democratic system of government. Any executive act that displaces or bypasses this oversight constitutes a breach of privilege, and the speaker has inherent jurisdiction to declare and determine the legal consequences that follow.
“This jurisdiction is not self-arrogated; it inheres in the office as a necessary incident of the speaker’s duty to protect the House’s constitutional prerogatives. This ruling operates within the domain of parliamentary privilege and constitutional principle. It binds the House and constitutes a definitive statement of the assembly’s constitutional position on the validity of notifications. It is complementary to, and not in derogation of, the jurisdiction of the superior courts. Citizens who have been subjected to tax assessments or demands at the void rates may seek appropriate relief from competent courts; this ruling provides the constitutional foundation for all such reliefs and declaration,” the ruling said.
