KARACHI: The Sindh Assembly on Friday adopted the Finance Bill 2024 to add new taxes, as treasury overwhelmingly voted to pass a Rs3.056 trillion of provincial budget for 2024-25 amid the opposition’s rejection and protest.
The bill after the legislation will come into force from July 1, 2024, setting additional revenue target of Rs76 billion for the next fiscal year. The Sindh government also marks Rs959 billion as the development expenditures.
However, the treasury denied the MQM’s amendments to the bill and disapproved over 1200 of its cut motions meant to force the government to slash its budget spending under different heads.
The amendments denial led the opposition mainly MQM to tearing up the bill copies and staging a walkout, though the PTI-backed legislators continued attending the eighth and last budget sitting.
Chief Minister Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah gave a pretext after the amendments were dismissed that the opposition had a period of 14 days to table them, which has lapsed at the time of bill consideration.
The finance bill envisages a revenue collection through its different departments like Rs37 billion to Sindh Excise and Taxation, Rs22 billion to the Sindh Revenue Board, besides Rs17 billion to the Board of Revenue Stamp Duty.
The government allocates funds with a priority for the development of different public sector such Rs519 billion for education, Rs334 billion for health, Rs329 for local government, Rs194 billion for home department, Rs56 billion for transport and Rs34.9 billion for pro-poor initiatives.
The opposition presented motions to reject the government’s demands for grants but treasury with its overwhelming majority voted to pass them one after the other. The opposition placed moves to scrape demands for grants that allow funds for the CM secretariat but treasury apposed them too.
The house approved Rs22 billion for current capital, Rs334 billion and Rs77 billion for the PSDP, in addition, Rs662 billion in provincial collections, including Rs350 billion from sales tax on services, Rs269 billion in GST, and Rs42.9 billion in non-tax revenue.
The assembly also approved Rs1.96 trillion in current revenue, Rs184 billion in current capital, Rs42 billion for debt repayment, and Rs142.5 billion for the government investments.
The finance bill seeks to scale up its financial resources with widening up the tax base. The amendments slap a tax of Rs2,000 on the sales of immoveable property and Rs1000 on sales agreement of a vehicle and property.
A duty of Rs5000 will be levied on an agreement between the allottees and builders for flats and shops. The Sindh government will receive a duty of Rs50 on the domestic air tickets and Rs400 on the international ones.
A tax of Rs450, 000 will be imposed on an imported vehicle of 3000 CC, while Rs275000 on 2000 CC. Locally manufactured vehicle of 2000 CC will be charged a tax at Rs50000. The taxes cover several business areas.
After the assembly session was prorogued, opposition leader Ali Khurshidi of the MQM lamented over rejection of his party’s budget amendments, fearing the finance bill will give rise to inflation especially in education and healthcare sectors. He said that opposition voiced was blocked in the house.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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