Adding a little more to its empty coffers, the Punjab Cabinet on Thursday approved to impose “lump sum” tax on motor vehicles. With this, the State exchequer would get richer by Rs50 crores every year.
The move came in order to meet the expenditure incurred on the roads and connected infrastructure required for plying of motor vehicles on roads.
For this purpose, the Cabinet approved to impose “a lump sum tax on various motor vehicles at the time of transfer of ownership under the Punjab Motor Vehicle Taxation Act 1924 (Amended 2013). This move would result in an additional income of Rs50 crore per annum”.
Also to check tax evasion by many dealers through floating bogus firms and making huge transactions from outside the State, the Cabinet also approved to amend the provisions of the Value Added Tax (VAT) Act.
With the amendment, the Act would enable collection of advance tax, adjustable against VAT liability on the entry of certain items into the State.
Cancer detecting drugs exempted from VAT
At the same time, to combat the fatal disease of cancer in an effective manner, the Cabinet exempted the cancer detecting drugs from VAT by making amendments in certain schedules of the Punjab VAT Act, 2005.
The cabinet has approved to exempt the cancer detecting chemicals — F-18 and F-18 FDG — from the payment of 6.5 per cent VAT. Besides, approval has also been given to introduce VAT at first stage of sale only in case of cigarette etc.
Committee formed to implement FSA
For the implementation of Centre’s Food Security Act in the State, Cabinet okayed to constitute an empowered committee under the chairmanship of Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal, along with the State Food and Civil Supply Minister Adesh Partap Singh Kairon, Industries Minister Madan Mohan Mittal and Finance Minister Parminder Singh Dhindsa as its members.
New industrial tribunal at Mohali approved
Cabinet decided to create a new Industrial Tribunal at Mohali, besides bringing the functioning of Gurdaspur Industrial Tribunal under the Amritsar’s Tribunal.
The move to rationalise and create industrial tribunals came after the State Government noticed “highest pendency” of cases in Patiala Industrial Tribunal Patiala which has jurisdiction over Patiala, Ropar, Mohali, Sangrur, Barnala and Fathegarh Sahib districts, and less institution of cases at Gurdaspur Industrial Tribunal having jurisdiction over only two districts — Pathankot and Gurdaspur.
“Mohali district has the highest institution of cases being an industrial town having major concentration of industrial units. Patiala tribunal would now hear cases of Patiala, Barnala and Sangrur districts only,” added the spokesperson.
Enhances Compensation Amount for Rape Victims
Complying with the directions of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, the Cabinet decided to enhance compensation amount from Rstwo to Rsthree lakhs to the rape victims and Rsthree lakh to Rsfour lakh in cases of murder with rape.
paddy procurement arrangements ReviewED
Cabinet also approved the arrangements for paddy procurement during Kharif Marketing Season 2013-14 which commenced on October 1.
It was informed in the meeting that State agencies would procure 135 lMT (90 per cent) and Food Corporation of India 15 lMT (10 per cent) during Kharif marketing season (KMF) 2013-14. for the purpose, State agencies require 7.71 lakh new gunny bales for packaging of paddy, while 7.70 lakh new gunny bales have been made available to all state procuring agencies.
Cash credit limit of Rs23,600 crore has also been sanctioned from the reserve bank of India for making payments to the farmers and arthiyas out of which Rs17,600 crore have already been received by the State Government, and remaining Rs6,160 crore would also be received soon.
Payments to arthiyas and farmers would be made through swipe cards by the State agencies and the farmers have been given the options to receive the payments directly from the procuring agencies also.
For the purpose, 1795 purchase centers have been notified and allotted to six procuring agencies as per their procurement shares by the Government.
244 posts sanctioned in three districts
To improve the administration and functioning of the districts of Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar (Nawanshahr), Moga and Sri Muktsar Sahib along with overcoming staff shortage, Cabinet sanctioned 244 posts of various categories in these districts — entailing a financial liability of Rs7.14 crore to the State exchequer.
Restructuring plan of cooperation depT okayed
Cabinet approved restructuring plan of the Co-operation Department to streamline its functioning in an effective and result-oriented manner.
As a part of this, the Cabinet approved to create 97 new posts while abolishing 926 posts of various categories out of 2782 already approved posts, of which 1643 were lying vacant.