Lashing out at the Akali-BJP government in the state for imposing punitive taxes on the people of Punjab, the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee President Capt Amarinder Singh today said that this was not going to help the state’s economy in anyway but will rather damage it further. “Only productive and not punitive taxation can revive the economy”, he remarked.The PCC President also announced statewide agitation programme against the punitive taxation beginning July 24 from Jallandhar, which will be attended by all the MPs, MLAs, district presidents and all those who contested the assembly and the recent municipal elections.a VAT and duty on sugar and mobile phones as also increasing electricity tariff, he said, such punitive taxation only derails economy and discourages investment.Capt Amarinder said, if the government is really sincere about reviving the economy it should generate resources by getting investment and industry which can contribute by way of taxes and not by robbing the poor people with heavy taxes on the things required for day to day survival like sugar.The former Chief Minister asserted that no matter how many taxes the government imposes it was not going to help the economy in anyway. The massive gap between the revenue and expenditure cannot be filled by extorting money from people through punitive taxation, but making the economy vibrant, he pointed out.“The state needs productive taxation but this government is imposing punitive taxation which will not serve any purpose”, he remarked, while adding, this will only lead to more corruption and even lesser revenues thus pushing the economy further down the drain.