Punjab local Government Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu on Saturday said a comprehensive advertisement policy would be formulated in the State to make urban local bodies economically self dependent and ensuring revenue to the State Government.
Addressing a news conference here, he said an advertisement directorate would be established besides the enactment of a stringent law to effectively implement the policy. The directorate would have powers pertaining to attachment apart from levying fines.
Sidhu said, that at present 80 cities of Haryana yield a windfall of Rs 200 crore through advertising whereas the 164 cities/towns of Punjab yield a pittance of Rs 25 crore. From Mohali alone, Rs 10 crore are collected while the income from Zirakpur gets pegged at Rs 2.5 crore which clearly implies that the rest of Punjab accounts for a mere Rs 12.5 crore.
The Minister said the department has set a target of Rs 300 crore income through advertising itself. He also divulged that ludhiana alone has the capability to account for more than Rs 100 crore income.
On ludhiana, the biggest commercial city of the State, Sidhu said the previous regime constructed bus queue shelters and then used them for advertising purposes thus causing a huge loss of Rs 100 crore which instead of going to State’s exchequer went into private hands.
He said these bus queue shelters were given away at rates lesser than to market rates which lead the enrichment of a private company by crores which should have rightfully gone to the State.
The Minister added that root cause of this was the toothless laws which were unable to punish those robbing the State exchequer nor were these strong enough to levy fines on defaulters. He divulged that a tough law would be enacted for effective implementation of the advertisement policy so as to not let any losses accrue to the state exchequer.
“The department would bring this policy in the Cabinet,” he said, adding that the his aim is to increase the income of the State Government by strengthening its resources.
Sidhu said the case about advertising is up for hearing at the Punjab and Haryana High Court on August 18 for which the department would deploy senior officers.
The Minister said imposition of entertainment tax is necessary for bringing cable business under the purview of law and make them accountable. He elaborated that a token amount would be levied as entertainment tax the main purpose of which is to increase the ambit of the law.