Punjab Government, it seems, has leashed its move to recover tax for dogs, cats, and other pets.
Already in the process on implementing a proposal to impose tax on keeping pet or domesticated animals like cats, dogs, horses, sheep or even goat, pigs, buffalo, camel, etc, the Congress Government on Tuesday come on a back foot claiming that there was no such move.
“The news reported in sections of media regarding imposition of tax upon keeping the pets in the urban areas is totally baseless and devoid of facts,” read the official statement issued by the state local Government Department.
Sources informed The Pioneer that Bathinda Municipal Corporation had passed the proposal to impose tax on pet animals which was further sent for the Government’s approval. The state local Government Department was also ready with a draft notification on September 29 for the Punjab Municipal Corporation and Municipal (Registration, Proper Control, and Compensation to the Victims of Animal Attack) Byelaws 2017.
As per the proposal, the owners have to get the licences made of all their pets which need to be renewed every year. For the same, Rs 250 will be the annual license fee for dogs, cats, sheep, deer, calf, horse, goat, piggery, while for the buffalo, bullock, camel, horse, Nilgai, elephant and cow, license fee was fixed at Rs 500 per year.
It has been learnt that draft was sent to all civic local bodies for implementation within two weeks.
The reports regarding the proposal was doing rounds since past few days, but it went viral on the internet on Tuesday morning with the opposition lashing out at the Government for the move — forcing the government to issue clarification by the evening.
Condemning the Congress government as well as the local Government Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu for “inventing” a new tax, SAD’s former minister Bikram Singh Majithia said that it required someone with “special ability” like Sidhu to come up with a “special” tax which seeks to not only charge a registration fee but also an annual renewal charge for keeping any kind of pet animal as well as milch animal in the municipal limits of towns and cities in the State.
Terming the new tax as anti-farmer and against small entrepreneurs, Majithia said that a large number of dairy farmers had established dairies within municipal limits and were supplying milk to the people as well as sweet shop owners.
He said that new tax would adversely affect the business of the sweet shop owners and have a cascading effect on prices as the burden for the same would be put on the common man.
Stating that no effort had been made to arrive at a consensus with those who would be effected by this new tax, Majithia said that the new regulations were accompanied with draconian provisions including charging 10 times of the registration fee if there was any delay in registration as well as compounding of annual license renewal. “There is also a provision of auctioning off animals found astray after a period of seven days,” he pointed.
Saying that the decision was “reflective of Sidhu’s mindless behaviour in comedy shows earlier”, Majithia said that the Minister has not done one constructive thing in the last seven months. “His department of local Government has been the worst performing department in the government. His own performance has been zero. He is ridden with a Badal phobia due to which he is only interested in disbanding all programmes undertaken by the SAD-BJP government. Now he has come up with this new tax without holding any public debate on the same,” he said.
No imposition of tax on keeping of pets: Govt
Punjab local Government Department on Tuesday made it clear that the news reported in sections of media regarding imposition of tax upon keeping the pets in the urban areas is totally baseless and devoid of facts.
Clarifying the position, a Department’s spokesperson said that the local Government Department has not imposed any such tax, and the letters being circulated in the media have absolutely no link with the imposition of tax.
Elaborating, spokesperson said that the said letters are concerned with the framing of ‘Punjab Municipal Corporation and Municipal (Registration Control of Stray Animals and Compensation to the Victim of Animal Attack) bye-laws, 2017’ by the department as per the Court orders.
Punjab and Haryana High Court had asked the states of Punjab, Haryana and UT of Chandigarh to chalk out a policy for putting a stop to the biting of people by the stray dogs or animals and awarding compensation to the family of deceased person, said the spokesperson.
Under the proposal, no new tax is intended to be imposed instead the letter has been released for framing a policy or proposal regarding giving compensation in case of death caused due to stray dog or animal biting, spokesperson clarified.