The Sindh Assembly on Thursday passed the budget of 2015-16 and finance bill amid protest and boycott of opposition members.
Sindh Finance Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah tabled the finance bill, but the opposition protested on amendments in it to raise stamp duty tax and boycotted the proceedings of the budget session. However, the treasury members passed the budget and finance bill in the absence of opposition.
Earlier, all cut motions of the opposition members on demands for grants on supplementary budget 2014-15 and demands for grants for the year 2015-16 were opposed by the finance minister and rejected by the House. At the start, the members tabled the cut motions one by one, but later on the request of the finance minister they cooperated and clubbed together their cut motions to save time as the Itfari time was approaching fast.
The schedule of authorised supplementary expenditures for the year 2014-15 and authorised expenditures for 2015-16 were laid. The House adopted the Sindh Finance Bill 2015 unanimously in the absence of the opposition; however, there was full quorum at the passing of the bill. The finance minister, chief minister and speaker thanked the House for passing of the Sindh Finance Bill 2015. Later, the speaker read out the order of the Sindh governor to prorogue the House.
