To accommodate ‘disgruntled’ Congress MlAs as chairpersons of boards and corporations, Punjab Cabinet on Wednesday approved important amendments to the Punjab State legislature (Prevention of Disqualification) Act, 1952.
With this, the legislators can now hold several new categories of ‘office of profit’, protecting them from disqualification in certain additional cases of office of profit, apart from the ones included in the original Act.
Punjab Congress is facing crisis after the Cabinet expansion with many of its MlAs raising a banner of revolt against its own Government and the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh accusing him of “ignoring” them.
To pacify the growing resentment within the party, the State leadership wanted to accommodate over a dozen of party leaders as the chairpersons of boards and corporations.
Spokesperson said that the amendments, aimed at addressing the complexities of modern day governance, include incorporation of a new Section 1A to provide for the definitions of “compensatory allowance”, “statutory body” and “non-statutory body”. Insertions and additions have also been made to the categories of offices of profit under Section 2 of the said Act.
As per Section 1(A), “compensatory allowance” would mean any sum of money payable to the holder of an office by way of daily allowance, such allowance not exceeding the amount of daily allowance to which a MlA is entitled under the Punjab legislative Assembly (Salary and Allowances of Members) Act, 1942), any conveyance allowance, house-rent allowance or travelling allowance for the purpose of enabling him to recoup any expenditure incurred by him in performing the functions of that office.
Section 2 has been amended to include any office held by a Minister (including the Chief Minister), Minister of State or Deputy Minister, whether ex-officio or by name, office of chairman, vice-chairman, deputy chairman, State planning board; office of each leader and each deputy leader of a recognized party and a recognised group in the Vidhan Sabha; office of chief whip, deputy chief whip or whip in the Vidhan Sabha, besides the office of chairman or member of the syndicate, senate, executive committee, council or court of a university or any other body connected with a university.
The office of chairman or member of a committee, whether consisting of one or more members, set up temporarily for the purpose of advising the Government or any other authority in respect of any matter of public importance or for the purpose of making an inquiry into, or collecting statistics in respect of, any such matter, if the holder of such office is not entitled to any remuneration other than compensatory allowance has also been included under the law.
PUNJAB TO DISINVEST lOSS-MAKING PSUs
In a crucial move aimed at bridging revenue and fiscal deficits and raising funds for the cash-crunched state exchequer, the Punjab Cabinet has approved the disinvestment of three ailing public sector undertakings (PSUs).
The process of disinvestment of the loss-making, Punjab Communications limited (PUNCOM), Punjab Financial Corporation (PFC) and Punjab State Industrial Development Corporation (PSIDC) will be carried out by a core group of officers, to be set up under the chairmanship of the Chief Secretary, along with a Transaction Adviser.
The decision was based on the recommendations of Punjab Governance Reforms and Ethics Commission (PGREC).
Besides the Chief Secretary, other members of the Core Group would include Principal Secretary (Finance), Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister, Administrative Secretary of the concerned Department and Managing Director of the concerned PSUs. Director Public Enterprises and Disinvestment would be its Member or Convener.
The committee has been mandated to make recommendations regarding the disinvestment of PSUs in Punjab, the report of which would be submitted to the Cabinet for final decision.
The Cabinet felt the disinvestment of three PSUs would help in raising funds for capital expenditure and infrastructure development, funding social welfare schemes and improving the performance of PSUs by instilling professional and corporate business ethics.
Notably, the State earned only Rs 4.90 crore as dividend in 2017-18 from its 50-odd PSUs, while the state resources locked up in these PSUs amount to Rs 7,614 crore. The total amount of outstanding government loans of these PSUs is around Rs 25,393 crore and the unpaid loan against the Government guarantee stands at Rs 18,312 crore approximately as on March 31, 2018, (provisional).
The Cabinet noted that the Central Government had collected around Rs one lakh crore from the strategic and non-strategic disinvestment of Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) in 2017-18, taking advantage of the market conditions.
At present, the State Government holds 71.28 percent (Punjab Information and Communication Technology Corporation limited and 0.08 percent through PSIDC) of equity share capital in PUNCOM, amounting to Rs 8.57 crore. During 2017-18, the Corporation suffered loss of Rs. 3.81 crore, and accumulated loss (tentative) of the Corporation as on March 31, 2018, stood at around Rs 20.53 crore.
Accumulated losses of the PFC as on December 30, 2017, were Rs 275 crore, and the present outstanding of Bonds (SlR and non-SlR) is around Rs 172.26 crore.
PSIDC’s liability towards bonds guaranteed by the State Government is Rs 601.06 crore and interest due thereon as on date is Rs 143.03 crore, thus making the total liability to be Rs 744.09 crore.
ZOO REVENUE TO BE DEPOSITED IN PZDS’s ACCOUNT
Punjab Cabinet has given ex-post facto approval to deposit all zoo revenue into the account of Punjab Zoos Development Society.
The Cabinet has approved a decision of the State Board for Wildlife, taken to this effect on July 14, 2017, at a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh.
Besides entry tickets, the Zoo’s generated revenue from canteens, parking place, safaris, vehicles, food courts etc, and the same was being deposited in the Society’s account since April 1, 2013.
Punjab Zoos Development Society was constituted vide Punjab Government notification dated February 26, 2012, for the development of zoos of the state.