PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Wednesday passed Rs603 billion budget for the next financial year amid the opposition`s protest against the chair`s decision to bulldoze its cut motions on the government departments` demands for grants.

The opposition members insisted that several departments had miserably failed to serve the people and therefore, they didn`t deserve grants.

Speaker Asad Qaisar chaired the session.

The 2017-18 budget having Rs208 billion allocations for the next fiscal`s Annual Development Programme was presented in the house on June 7.

In the development outlay, Rs126 billion is the provincial component and Rs83 billion foreign component.

The foreign component includes Rs29.442 billion (36 per cent) as grant and Rs52. 557 Billion (64 per cent) as loan. Major part of theloan will be spent on the execution of the Peshawar Bas Rapid Transit project.

The house also passed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Finance Act 2017 tabled by finance minister Muzaf far Said.

A minor amendment to the finance bill for the withdrawal of taxes on tailor shops was also approved.

Af ter the passage of the Finance Bill, the `urban immovable property tax` on five marlas house of A category went up to Rs1,500, over five marlas to Rs2,500, over 10 marlas to Rs3,300, over 15 marlas to Rs4,800, over 18 marlas to Rs15,000, over 20 marlas to Rs22,500, over 30 marlas to Rs30,000 and over 40 marlas to Rs45,000.

It also levied from Rs330 to Rs1,000 on the people earning over Rs10,000-Rs500,000, while for the government employees, Rs100 was approved for the officials of BPS 5-12 and Rs2,000 for those of BPS-20 and above.

The professional caterers will pay Rs15,000, travels agents and HajoperatorsRs8,000toRs15,000, wedding halls Rs30,000, dentists and doctors from Rs15,000 to Rs20,000, diagnostic centres Rs7,000-20,000, petrol, diesel and CNG stations Rs12,000, moneychangers Rs10,000, fitness centres and gyms Rs1,000, departmental stores Rs10,000, cable operatorsRs10,000, wholesales Rs10,000 and chemists Rs10,000.

Both the opposition and treasury members only moved cut motions on the demand for grants for the departments of information technology and revenue department.

The members participated in the debate on the both departments before the speaker bulldozed all cut motions under Rule 148`s sub-rule 4 to the annoyance of the opposition, which termed the conduct of the speaker undemocratic.

The ministers, advisers and parliamentary secretaries presented a total of 59 motions of demands for grants to be utilised in the next fiscal. They all were approved by the house one by one.

Complaining about the bulldozing of the opposition members` cut motions, parliamentary leader of ANP Sardar Hussain Babak said that conduct of the speaker was dictatorship.

He asked the chair about the reason for the passage of the budget in hurry and said the budget session was an opportunity for lawmakers to voice concerns about the inefficient government departments.

The ANP leader said the speaker had the power to suspend cut motions but it was undemocratic.

Earlier, a heated debate waswitnessed in the house on the poor performance of the revenue department when the department`s minister, Ali Amin Gandapur, moved the motion for the demand of grant.

Sardar Hussain Chitrali of the PPP wondered what the revenue department did all through the year.

He said land settlement had been under way in Chitral for 18 years but its completion wasn`t in sight.

Malik Noor Saleem of the JUI-F said despite the PTI-led provincial government claims of introducing drastic reforms in the revenue department, the `patwari culture` continued to be there.

He said the computerisation of land records began four years ago but ironic ally, it was still not over.

Jaffar Shah of the ANP said the acquiring oflandforthe construction of colleges, schools and health units was a very complicated process due to which they couldn`t be constructed in many years.

The fixation of price of the land was a very serious issue as no landowner was ready to sell their land to the department on the prices fixed by the government for the construction of schools, colleges and hospitals.

Jaf f ar Shah said under the PTI`s initiative for improvement of the revenue department`s efficiency, the establishment of a `patwarkhana` was approved four years ago in his constituency at the cost of Rs7.4 million but ironically, work on it had yet to begin.

Raja Faisal Zaman of the PML-N said the revenue department had failed to achieve its target fixed in the outgoing financial year. He said according to the budget documents, the revenue target was Rs49 billion and it was revised to Rs32 billion but even then, the inefficient department generated just Rs29 billion.

Leader of the opposition Maulana Lutfur Rehman, Amna Sardar and Rashad Khan of the PML-N, Sardar Babak and other opposition members also criticised the revenue department for its failure to eliminate the `patwari culture` from the province.

Responding to the criticism, Chief Minister Pervez Khattak said the acquiring of land for putting up the government departments` buildings was an issue.

He said the deputy commissioners were afraid of purchasing land for the construction of government buildings at the market rate and instead, they preferred the traditional annual rates of the land.

The CM suggested that the speaker form a house committee to resolve the issue.

The speaker adjourned the session until Thursday.