Maintaining that the Punjab government would review the property tax, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Tuesday clarified that the decision to impose the same was “collective decision of the State Cabinet”.
“The move to levy property tax in urban areas was a collective decision of the state Sabinet,” said Badal while talking to the reporters. Badal’s statement assumes significance in the wake of allegations leveled by the state unit of BJP that the decision to impose property tax was that of the SAD.
More to the point, the BJP had listed the property tax as one of the main reasons for combine’s poor show in the state in the recently-concluded lok Sabha elections.
Besides political reasons, the decision to review the imposition of property tax would be taken in the larger interest of public, amid Congress’ demand for its abolition.
“If there is resentment over the decision of the state government to levy property tax, then we are duty bound to review it,” said Badal. Only last month, the state local Bodies Department had decided to hold meetings with citizens living in urban areas and get their feedback about property tax.
Punjab Congress had also on May 25 asked the SAD-BJP government to abolish property tax in the state with immediate effect, after the NDA dispensation took charge at the Centre.
Notably, the SAD-BJP alliance had been maintaining that it had to impose property tax as the Centre, under the Congress-led UPA, had withheld grants sanctioned under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM).
Punjab Government had imposed property tax last year with effect from April 1, 2013, following which the people have to pay levy on commercial and residential properties, including vacant plots.