Chandigarh, March 29
Bowing to pressure from both within the ruling party and the Opposition, the Punjab Chief Minister, Capt Amarinder Singh, today announced the withdrawal of the proposed cess on diesel and petrol saying that an alternative source of raising Rs 100 crore for the Agri-Diversification, Infrastructure, Research and Development Fund would be found.
Intervening in the preliminary discussion on the Punjab Value Added Tax (VAT) Bill, the Chief Minister said that tax on diesel under VAT would also remain unchanged at 8.8 per cent against the proposed rate of 12.2 per cent. He quoted the steep increase in the international prices of petroleum products as the reason for exempting both diesel and petrol from the proposed cess.
As an alternative, the Finance and Planning Minister, Mr Surinder Singla, is expected to levy cess on some luxuries in his wrap-up on the discussions on the Budget tomorrow.
Earlier, as the discussion on the budgetary proposals continued for the second day today, some on the Treasury Benches, including Mr Sunil Jakhar and Dr Mohinder Kumar Rinwa, joined Opposition members — Mr Balwinder Singh Bhunder, Mr Tikshan Sud and Dr Upinderjit Kaur — in demanding for review the proposal for levying a cess of Re 1 per litre on diesel and 50 paise per litre on petrol in the state.
There was near unanimity that farmers of Punjab were getting crushed under the rising prices of inputs in general and diesel in particular. To sustain agriculture, they argued, special steps should be taken.
Mr Bhunder of the Shiromani Akali Dal not only criticised the ruling party for its hollow claims on diversification but also held that the government was missing no opportunity to put an additional burden on the farmers. Quoting the levy of octroi on electricity, increase in the power tariff, the proposed cess on diesel and delay in the introduction of Bt cotton, he said that farmers were feeling suffocated. Farmers, he said, would have to pay through their nose to buy seeds of Bt cotton from Markfed at Rs 3,700 a kg.
Suggesting an alternative, he said that if those growing
cotton, sugarcane, potatoes and even sunflowers had been offered remunerative prices, the process of diversification would have been accelerated.
However, the reality was that farmers were still fighting for the payment of their arrears for sugarcane supplied to sugar mills in the cooperative sector some years ago. There were no takers for either potatoes or sunflower oil. And when this year, people, through own efforts, had a good cotton crop, it sold below the minimum support price.
Instead of looking to the Centre for approval of its diversification plan prepared by Dr S.S. Johl, he said, an alternative diversification plan would work without much of a problem. All that a farmer needed was remunerative prices for his produce, he added. Mr Bhunder also talked about the rising debt of the state asking the ruling party and the Opposition to unite in downsizing the bureaucracy, cutting the flab and fighting corruption.
Referring to the arrest of a former Chief Secretary of Uttar Pradesh in a corruption case, he said that it was time that the government came clean on the issue of corruption in public life.
The bureaucracy and the police, he said, were ruling the roost. Without naming Ms Razia Sultan, he said a member of the House found her office locked by a senior police officer. A case was registered against an MLA by a station house officer. “Who is to be blamed for this state of affairs?”
