A day after the Opposition Congress sought to abolish property tax, Punjab local Bodies Department on Monday decided to hold meetings with the citizens living in urban areas and get their feedback.
“The local Bodies Department has decided to collect first hand information from the people residing in the urban areas on the issue of property tax,” said an official spokesperson of the State Government.
For the purpose, local Bodies department secretary would be meeting the delegations of people on this issue.
In the meetings, the Secretary of the department will listen to the views of respective municipal committees or corporations and representatives of resident welfare associations and other societies concerned.
Department’s official spokesperson said that as per schedule, six feedback meeting have been arranged on May 27 and May 28 in different cities including Patiala, Bathinda, Amritsar, ludhiana, Ferozepur and Jalandhar.
He said: “Deputy Commissioners, Commissioners of the Corporation, Director local Government and Regional Deputy Directors of local Government Department would also participate in the meeting.”
Punjab Congress vice-president Brahm Mohindra, a day before, had asked the SAD-BJP alliance to abolish the property tax in the state with immediate effect, saying that the NDA was going to take over the rein at the Centre.
SAD-BJP regime in Punjab had been maintaining that it had to impose property tax as the Centre under Congress-led UPA had withheld grants sanctioned under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM).
Notably, a few candidates of SAD had even attributed property tax as one of the reasons to their defeat in lok Sabha polls. Punjab government on May 23 had announced to extend last date of property tax payment without penalty till June 30.
Punjab government had imposed property tax in the previous year with effect from April 1, 2013, barring religious institutions, cow shelters, care centres for stray animals and charitable institutions, those living below the poverty line and freedom fighters.