Chandigarh, December 24
Pay more taxes and have less holidays is the Christmas and New Year gift from the Punjab Council of Ministers to the people of the state.

Offsetting reduction in power tariff by doubling the electricity duty and increasing the stamp duty by 50 per cent, the Punjab Government has given people of the state the first dose of indirect double taxation.

While in October, the State Electricity Regulatory Authority had slashed power tariff by 7 to 12 per cent, the Punjab Council of Ministers at its meeting under the Chief Minister, Capt Amarinder Singh, today approved doubling of electricity duty by 5 per cent to 10 per cent.

The council also decided to raise the stamp duty from 6 to 9 per cent. Doubling of electricity duty and increased stamp duty would generate Rs 450 crore an annum for setting up a new “Dedicated Social Security Fund” to ensure regular and timely payment of pensions to widows, destitute women, old, aged and disabled persons.

Besides, the fund would also support other schemes like Aashirwad, provision of free books and scholarships to students belonging to Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes.

In fact, non-disbursement of pensions to old, disabled, handicapped and widows was being used by the Opposition parties, including Shiromani Akali Dal, for bashing the Congress Government in the state.

Though the government clarified that doubling of electricity duty and 50 per cent increase in stamp duty would not affect the agricultural sector, yet its impact would be felt by all sections of domestic consumers of electricity as well as those selling or buying residential or commercial property.

The council decided to slash the number of additional public holidays from 28 to 18 on the recommendation of the Pay Commission. These 18 holidays will be in addition to three national holidays on Independence Day, Republic Day and Gandhi Jayanti.

In a special gesture to employees of government-aided colleges located in Patiala city, the council decided to double their house rent allowance from 7.5 per cent with retrospective effect from March 1 last year. This would put an additional burden of Rs 12 lakh a year.

It was also decided to shift the office of the Department of Archives from Rajindra Kothi to the buildings previously occupied by the Commissioner, Deputy Commissioner and sessions courts. Now Rajindra Kothi would be converted into Heritage Hotel.

The council also approved modalities for the grant of Parman Patras. All proposals would be scrutinised by a committee headed by the Chief Secretary. It also decided to do away with the fixed number of awards prescribed for bravery and other categories. In the new scheme of things, bravery awards would be considered first and other categories would follow afterwards to meet an annual ceiling of 40 such Parman Patra awards.