Punjab Cabinet gives major relief to public on property tax

Chandigarh, September 23, 2014: In a bid provide 223 citizen centric services to the urban as well as rural populace in an integrated manner under a single roof, the Punjab Cabinet today approved to establish 1750 Rural and 424 Urban "Unified Service Delivery Centers" from where all the services of every department would be made available to the citizens at their door steps in a hassle free manner within the minimum time period.

A decision to this effect was taken here at a meeting of the Cabinet chaired by Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal in CMO this morning. 

Disclosing this here today, a spokesperson of the Chief Minister’s Office said that in urban areas one such centre would be planned within a radius of 1.5 to 2.5 square kilometre areas, based upon the population density. On the basis of initial assessment, it was estimated that one service Delivery centre for a cluster of villages having 8000-10,000 population may be established. The Deputy Commissioners of the concerned district would be the nodal official to steer the program in the respective districts. It was also decided that in future no individual department would establish any front end service delivery centre and all the citizen centric services of all the department would be provided through these centres.

To check the menace of stray cattle across the state, the Cabinet approved the setting up of Cattle Pounds at district level. This decision has been taken in view of the frequent fatal accidents caused by the stray animals especially the cows, which resulted in heavy human loss. To achieve this objective the state government has constituted Cattle Welfare Societies at district level under the chairmanship of the concerned Deputy Commissioner, which would also have officers of the different departments besides 10 nominated members from amongst NGOs, Gaushalas and others. These societies have been entrusted with the task of creating requisite infra structure to provide the basic facilities like shelter, fodder, upkeep and veterinary services to the stray cattle in order to prevent huge loss to the crops and save precious human lives.

The Cabinet also gave go ahead to amend the Punjab Municipal Act 1911 and Punjab Municipal Corporation Act 1976 for providing a major relief to the public in the Property Tax on land and buildings. In the light of recommendations of the committee under the chairmanship of Local Government Minister, which reconsidered the issue of Property Tax in urban areas, the Cabinet also approved to divide all the Municipalities of the state in three categories- A, B and C. Category A would further be divided into three sectors and categories B and C would be divided into two sectors. Religious places, cremation grounds, cattle pounds, historical buildings, old aged home/ orphanage, buildings/ land belonging to the Municipalities, Government/ Government aided school/ colleges, government hospitals/ dispensaries, parking slots (only in multi storey flats) and land under agriculture/ horticulture would be exempted. Exemption to widows and disabled upto Rs 5000, freedom fighters, BPL families, ex-servicemen (total exemption) and all educational institutions upto 50%. No tax on vacant plots and houses constructed on plots measuring 50 square yards (irrespective of storey), single storey residential houses upto 125 square yards and flats upto 500 square feet super covered area.  7.50% tax would be levied on total annual rent of non residential rented buildings. All newly created Nagar Panchayats or created before April 1, 2014 or have not completed three years upto April 1, 2014 and new regions included in Municipalities would be exempted for a period of three years. The rates on various properties have been lowered and rationalised and have been delinked from collector rates.

In order to offer another opportunity to the public who could not avail of the earlier policy for regularisation of unauthorised colonies and plots/ buildings across the state, the Cabinet also approved a new policy for  a period of one year for regularisation of these colonies/ plots/ buildings. The state government had framed a policy aimed at bringing all unauthorised colonies in the state under the umbrella of planning framework besides providing basic infra structure like water supply, sewerage, electricity connections and paved streets to the residents of these colonies. This policy was meant to regularise the unauthorised colonies which remained operative for period of one year i.e upto April 16, 2014. During the period of operation of the said policy as many as 2,12,415 applications for regularisation of unauthorised colonies and plots/ buildings were received. But due to large number of applications, shortage of staff and due to implementation of Model Election Code of Conduct these applications could not be processed in the stipulated period.

Apart from this, several NRI owners of colonies/ plots and the people working outside Punjab could not avail the opportunity of getting their colonies/ plots regularised. Thus in order to clear the backlog of pending applications and to give another opportunity to the public who could not apply earlier for the regularisation of the plots/ buildings under the previous policy, the government has revived the policy for  a period of one more year.

The Cabinet also gave approval to commence online lottery to mop up additional Revenue in the state. A tender and monitoring committee headed by the Chief Secretary with Principal Secretary Industries and Commerce and Principal Secretary Finance as Members besides Director Lotteries as its Convener has also been constituted to finalise the modalities for setting up and manage the online lottery system in the state on Build, Operate and Own (BOO) basis.

The Cabinet also approved the policy for allotment of plots for Hospital/ Multi Speciality Hospitals/ Medical University cum Colleges and Hospital and Medical Research Institutes and Small Hospitals in Medicity New Chandigarh. The procedure for allotment of plots was very transparent and payment terms were quite liberal. The state government has decided to establish a hub for medical facilities for which GMADA has acquired 258 acres land in New Chandigarh. Of this about 104.21 acres would be utilised for Hospital/ Multi Speciality Hospitals/ Medical Colleges cum Hospital and Medical Research Institutes and the balance land has been kept reserved for infrastructure and commercial facilities.

In a bid to further promote Tourism in the state, the Cabinet approved a Tourism/ Theme destination project around Ranjit Sagar Lake near Theen Dam, for which Shivalik (Dhauladhar) Tourism Development Board was being constituted. This project would bring revenue to the state besides ushering in an era of economic growth.

The Cabinet also gave ex-post facto approval to enhance the number of members nominated by the state government from one to two in each delimitation board with a view to give in more representation to the general public.

The Cabinet also okayed to amend clause B of section 2 of the Punjab Cattle Fairs (Regulation) Act 1967 with a view to omit the word 'Elephant'. This amendment was necessitated because Elephant has been included in the list of Wild animals (schedule-1) under the Wildlife Protection Act 1972 and its sale-purchase was not permitted under the said act.

The Cabinet also gave approval for acquisition of additional land for Aerocity, IT City, Ecocity and Master Plan Roads by GMADA through Registered Transfer Deeds under Punjab Regional Town Planning Act 1995/ 2006. As per the decision 70 acres land would be acquired through land pooling and 98 acres through cash compensation. The Cabinet also approved to constitute a standing committee for acquisition of land for the areas less than five hectares.    

To bring far more efficiency in handling the cases of financial irregularities/ misappropriation, embezzlement and assets accumulated beyond known sources of Income, the Cabinet approved to sanction a post of Joint Director (Financial Investigation) and another post of section Officer (Audit) by abolishing sanctioned posts of District Industries Officer and Deputy Registrar Cooperative in the Vigilance Bureau. 

The Cabinet also gave approval the formula for filling up 1925 vacant posts of lecturers of various subjects in private aided colleges within a period of three years. As per the formula 484 posts each would be filled during the first and second year and the rest 957 in the third year.

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