Chandigarh, April 28
The Punjab Government has initiated a two-pronged strategy to create a movement against wealth tax in the country as well as move an amendment on the Finance Bill 2013 to take agricultural land out of the ambit of the definition of urban lands.

This comes on a day when former PPC chief Capt Amarinder Singh too joined the issue, saying he would ensure the tax was withdrawn.

While Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has written to the Prime Minister, the Finance Minister as well as leaders of all political parties in Parliament whom he will also meet soon, Bathinda MP Harsimrat Badal has submitted an amendment to the Lok Sabha secretariat which she will move when the Bill comes up for voting on May 6.

These efforts will be coupled with a resolution demanding immediate withdrawal of the proposal during the emergency session of the state assembly on May 3 which will be preceded by statewide dharnas by the SAD in conjunction with the BJP.

Sources here said the CM today shot off letters to the PM, the FM as well as all party MPs cutting across party lines, claiming the wealth tax proposal if cleared would lead to social disorder and bring the country to the brink of a critical economic crisis. The letters say that in actual terms the wealth tax would translate into a tax of approximately Rs 35,000 per acre per annum which was more than what the farmers got by leasing out their lands. It also claimed that the tax would push farmers into the embrace of extreme elements including Naxals.

While this is part of the political strategy of the SAD, it has also moved to tackle the technical aspects of the case with Harsimrat Badal set to move an amendment aimed at changing the definition of urban land under both the Finance Bills of 1992 and 2013.

Meanwhile, Capt Amarinder Singh, who has always associated himself with the ‘jat’ peasantry, has moved in to assure farmers that their interests will be watched and the tax will be withdrawn. Pradesh Congress president Partap Singh Bajwa has also given a similar assurance. Both Amarinder and Bajwa are expected to meet both Congress president Sonia Gandhi and the Union Finance Minister on the issue.

Amarinder on his part has also called for assertive action on the issue, saying he on his part was ready to go to a greater extent than even when his government enacted the Water Sharing Treaties Abrogation Act to save the waters of Punjab. He even went on to say “it is unfortunate that when the farming needs incentives due to rising input costs, it has been penalised and slapped with 1 per cent tax”.