M A I N   N E W S

Punjab to levy property tax, up electricity duty
Ruchika M. Khanna/TNS

Chandigarh, June 22
Soon after a tax-free Budget, the Punjab Government is set to impose three new taxes to reduce the state’s massive Rs 6,838 revenue deficit. The state must bring down its deficit by 100 per cent to Rs 3,123 crore for an Rs 1,482 crore grant from the 13th Finance Commission.

The state government will soon tax mobile phone operators for installing towers while the common man could have to pay enhanced electricity duty and property tax.

Though the final call would be taken after a meeting of the SAD and BJP, government sources said the exercise to impose the levies had begun.

The Punjab Government hopes to rake in Rs 100 crore by taxing cellphone operators Rs 1 lakh a year for each tower they erect in the state. There are an estimated 10,000 mobile towers in the state.

The state would generate an additional Rs 140 crore by increasing electricity duty from the present 13 per cent to 17 per cent. Currently, Punjab earns Rs 1,400 crore every year as electricity duty.

Property tax is proposed to be imposed on the Haryana pattern. This is essential to fulfill the criteria for getting grants under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission.

Haryana has imposed property tax of Re 1 per square yard on houses up to 250 square yards and offers a 50 per cent concession to owners of self- occupied property.

Imposition of property tax will help urban local bodies become financially self-reliant. The 10 per cent of VAT collections given to local bodies will then be available with the state government for carrying out other development activities.

Even after Finance Minister Parminder Singh Dhindsa presented the Budget proposals for 2012-13, he had made it clear that it was not a tax-free Budget. He had said that the state needed to bring down its revenue deficit from the present 2.75 per cent of the Gross State Domestic Product (in 2011-12) to 1.2 per cent of GSDP by the end of this financial year.