K-P Assembly approves budget for 2017-18

Adopts all 55 demands for grants worth Rs596 billion to meet requirements of various depts

PESHAWAR: Giving the nod to the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Finance Bill 2017, the K-P Assembly on Wednesday approved Rs603 billion provincial budget for the fiscal year 2017-18.

In the new budget, taxes rates have been increased on urban immovable properties and a professional tax has been imposed on almost all professionals whose monthly income exceeds Rs10,000.



The bill has also increased the rates of motor vehicle tax of various categories and imposed tax on federal employees in the province and provincial government employees of grade-5 and above.

The house adopted all the 55 demands for grants worth Rs596 billion to meet the requirements of various government departments in the fiscal year 2017-18.

The opposition members took back all their cut motions in favour of the departments after their reservations were noted and answered by the ministers concerned.



Only Minister for Revenue and Estate Ali Amin Gandapur could not convince the opposition and later asked the speaker to put the cut motions for voting before the house. Resultantly, the cut motions were defeated and the demand was granted.

Even the speaker, Asad Qaiser, himself greeted and welcomed Gandapur for showing up in the house after a long time. The opposition members criticised his department for failing to eliminate corruptions and Patwari culture from the province.

ANP’s parliamentary leader Sardar Hussain Babak told the house that during the PTI government, Patwaris had changed their ways of the corruption. “Earlier, Patwari would take bribes and kickbacks in his office and now they call the people to their homes and Hujras for taking bribes,” he said.

PPP lawmaker Sardar Hussain Chitrali told the house the revenue department had not completed land settlement project in Chitral in the past 18 years.

“Chitral University is in limbo since land could not be acquired due to the incomplete land settlement process,” he said, adding that the revenue system is outdated and their language existed nowhere.

ANP’s Syed Jafar Shah asked the house to permanently resolve issues related to acquisition of land for the Suki Kinari Hydropower Project, the Gorkin Mataltan Hydropower Project and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects. He said people were not ready to give away their lands for the projects on government-specified rates.

Gandapur could not answer as to why his department failed to achieve its revenue targets. On the issue of land acquisition, Gandapur said the K-P government hired a company as consultant to set rates for land acquisition taking all needed factors into account.

“We have specified rates on [the basis of] the research of the consultant but they have not been implemented due to objections raised by the members as applying those rates in areas [will] increase the property transfer fee,” he said, adding that the rates could be implemented to resolve the issue if the house agreed.



Explaining his progress, he said his department had completed 100 patwarkhanay and the Patwaris without proper offices were being paid rents for getting an office in their constituency.

He said they had terminated 72 Patwari, 6 Tehsildar and 7 Naib Tehsildars over corruption and Rs800 million embezzled money had been recovered and returned to public.

Chief Minister Pervez Khattak also called for a proper procedure to set rates for land procurements for government project. He said market rates should be used for land acquisition but claimed that deputy commissioners and other officials were not ready to make assessment of market rates for procuring land due to the fear of accountability bodies.

The speaker told him that the assembly had already constituted a committee which was working on the issue. The debate, however, could not find a solution to the problem.