M A I N   N E W S

Punjab to abolish octroi soon
Tribune News Service

Bathinda, January 27
The Punjab Government will abolish octroi shortly, as promised by the Congress in its election manifesto.

Stating this here today, the Chairman, High-Powered Finance Committee, Punjab, Mr Surinder Singla, said the Punjab Government was exploring other ways for municipal councils to generate income.

Mr Singla said he was preparing a report in this regard by meeting people from different professions and would submit it to the Punjab Government after two months. He said the Punjab Government had not filed an appeal in the Supreme Court against the verdict of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, in which the state government had been directed not to abolish octroi.

He claimed that whenever octroi collection had been handed over to private contractors, the income of municipal councils had gone down while the contractors had minted money by extracting it from traders.