Strongly opposing the Parkash Singh Badal-led Punjab Government’s move to impose retrospective taxes in the State, the State Congress president Capt Amarinder Singh on Tuesday said it was a punitive and regressive move.
He promised one-time settlement for the marriage palaces and other establishments that have been slapped with the retrospective taxes by the state government.
“Imposing retrospective taxes is not only punitive but regressive as well and amounts to extortion which the Akalis are resorting to,” he said while talking to a delegation of real estate dealers and marriage palace owners, who were complaining about the retrospective taxes imposed on them by the Akali government.
The former chief minister also announced that the Congress government will bring out a comprehensive real estate development policy in the state to watch the interests of everybody including the investors and real estate dealers.
He said that the real estate sector is a strong indicator of the economic well-being of a state and currently it was in crisis in Punjab.
Capt Amarinder said that the very fact that despite a massive increase in the stamp duty on real estate business by the Akalis, the income generated was far less than it was during his tenure as the Chief Minister.
He pointed out that during his time, the stamp duty on real estate was only six percent which has been raised to 10 percent by the Akalis and despite that, the revenue collection from stamp duty has gone down by more than half as compared to his tenure.
Punjab Congress president criticized the government for harassing marriage palace owners by imposing retrospective taxes on them. “Given the fact that the government was faced with severe financial crisis, it was now trying to clutch on the straws by imposing taxes on marriage palaces and small plot holders,” he said, while adding that these regressive measures are not going to generate much revenue but will instead lead to harassment only.