M A I N   N E W S

Punjab okays cut in petrol, diesel prices
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 10
After keeping the matter pending for over two months, the Punjab Council of Ministers today cleared the legal hurdle to reduce the price of petrol by 91 paise per litre and diesel by 29 paise per litre.

The council, which met here under the Chairmanship of Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, approved an ordinance for promulgation to effect amendments in the VAT Act to exempt the hike in the price of petrol and diesel made on June 5 by the Union government. As soon as the ordinance is promulgated, the enhanced price which was Rs 4 per litre in case of petrol and Rs 2 per liter in case of diesel, would be exempted from VAT.

After the hike in petrol and diesel price on June 5, the Punjab and Haryana governments had announced to exempt the enhanced price from VAT. While Haryana implemented the decision within a week from making the announcement, the Punjab government took about 9 weeks to do it.

Meanwhile, the 5th Punjab Pay Commission to review the pay scales and emoluments of its employees was cleared at today's meeting.

However, various sections of employees have been upset as the council did not take up their main demands such as enhancing medical allowance to Rs 500 per month, enhancing promotional scale on completion of four, nine and 14 years of service, and extending the retirement age to 60 years.

With a view to abolish octroi from September 1, the council also approved the promulgation of an ordinance to assign 10 per cent revenue, not less than Rs 550 crore, from VAT to municipal committees and corporations. It would be a statutory fund and has been created to ensure regular flow of cash to the committees and corporations in lieu of octroi. The committees would continue be get Rs 151 crore from octroi on alcohol, petrol and diesel. In all, the earning from octroi had been Rs 688 crore per annum.

Capt Amarinder Singh urged traders and manufacturers to pass on the benefit of Rs 550 crore, as a result of abolition of octroi, to the consumers. He expected that besides facilitating free movement of vehicles with the removal of octroi posts, the abolition of octroi should result in the reduction of prices of consumer goods.

The Council also approved the policy for change of land use to facilitate private sector investment for development of industrial parks, estates, agro parks, IT parks and integrated multiplexes as provided under the Industrial Policy 2003, thereby reducing the limit of 500 meters to 100 meters for setting up of non-hazardous units.

The setting up 6 new Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) projects and 2,691 new Anganwari centers under the 100 per cent Centrally-sponsored ICDS programme to provide pre-school education, immunisation, health check up, referral services, nutrition and health education and supplementary nutrition was also approved.

The Council of Ministers also approved to exempt 'papad' and 'warrian' from VAT.

The Council of Ministers also approved to raise the borrowing limit of the Punjab State Electricity Board from Rs 6,000 crore to Rs8,000 crore.

It okayed the proposal to recruit 181 specialist doctors on regular basis and fill 15 vacant posts of doctors in medicine, gynecology, pediatrics, surgery, orthopedics,anesthesia, pathology, ophthalmology, radiology, psychiatry, blood transfusion officer, dental, skin,ear, nose and throat (ENT) and microbiology in government health institutions.

The proposal to fill 780 posts of instructors in Industrial Training Institutes on contract basis at a gross salary of Rs 7,500 per month also got a nod from the council.

The Council also approved the promulgation of ordinance to amend Section 39 of the Punjab Courts Act, 1918, thereby enabling district judges to hear appeals of all civil cases without any pecuniary limits.

It also okayed the proposal to transfer 6 kanal and 16 marlas of land of the Horticulture Department to the Improvement Trust at Nabha at the current prevailing price.

The proposed amendment of Section 1(2) of the Punjab Plastic Carry Bags (Manufacture, Usage and Disposal) Control Act, 2005, was also cleared to allow manufacturers to make necessary arrangements to stop the production of plastic bags during the next one year.