The Punjab Cabinet today approved to introduce the insurance scheme known as “Social Security Scheme for Business community” in the state.A decision to this effect was taken here at a meeting of the Cabinet chaired by Punjab Chief Minister Mr. Parkash Singh Badal in Punjab Bhawan this evening. Giving the details, a spokesperson of the Chief Minister’s Office said that this scheme would cover as many as 1,86,543 dealers/ businessmen, who have a turnover up to Rs 1 crore. However the businessmen, who were covered under any other social security scheme of Punjab would not be eligible for this scheme. Under this scheme, three insurance covers would be extended to the beneficiaries: Life Insurance (Accidental Death and Disability Insurance) to provide a cover of Rs. two lakh per beneficiary including accidental death and permanent or partial disability; Health Insurance Cover to provide a cover for meeting expenses of hospitalization for medical procedure up to Rs.50,000 per beneficiary. Both private and public hospitals would be empanelled to provide smart card based cashless hospitalization to the beneficiaries. In order to provide services in an effective and efficient manner, at least one hospital would be empanelled for 1000 beneficiaries. Under Fire Insurance a cover of Rs.5 lakh per beneficiary for the losses caused due to fire would be available. The state government would be spending about Rs 25 crore annually on this account as premium.
In another significant decision, the Cabinet approved an economic package to revive the Iron and Steel Industry of the state thereby giving a major relief to this sector on the request of the members of the Iron and Steel Industry Association. Conceding the demand of iron and steel industry, the Cabinet decided to slash the rate of VAT from 4.50% + 10% surcharge to 2% + 10% surcharge besides reducing the advance tax on finished goods to 2.50%.It was estimated that the implementation of new scheme would result in loss of Rs.200 crore approximately but it would also lead to the revival of iron and steel industry, which had been passing through rough weather for past several years. Under the new scheme Input Tax Credit (ITC) would be restricted to only two stages, which would curb bogus billing and false refunds prevalent in the industry besides differentiating between the good tax payers and fraudsters. The revival package would enable the good tax payers to trade freely besides relieving them from un-healthy competition in the industry. It may be recalled that according to the data provided by the department of Industry from April 1 - December 25, 2013, 155 steel mills have been closed down.The Cabinet also authorized the Chief Minister to pre-pone the seventh session of the 14th Vidhan Sabha either in the second or third week of February to ensure smooth conduct of legislative business. The dates of the proposed week long session would be sent to the Punjab Governor for his final nod to summon this session.The Cabinet also approved the setting up of an exclusive court for quick disposal of cases related to NRIs at Jalandhar.In a major relief to the general public, the Cabinet also gave green signal to a proposal put forth by the Local Government department to give 10% rebate on Property Tax deposited up to March 31, 2014 instead of earlier date of December 31, 2013.
Similarly, the Cabinet also gave nod for reducing the rate of property tax to be levied on residential properties under rent from existing 7.5% to three percent. Likewise, the rate of penalty has also been reduced from 25% to 10% in case of tax deposited after the due date of December 31 but before the end of financial year. Rate of penalty has been reduced from 100% to 20% in case of deposit of tax after the expiry of financial year but an interest at the rate of 18% would be charged on the amount from date of end of financial year up to date of actual payment. At places where collector rate has not been fixed separately for industrial value then market value in such cases would be considered as 75% of the commercial collector rates. It has also been decided to give exemption upto Rs 5000 per annum to gallantry awardees servicemen/ ex-servicemen.In a bid to provide better transport facilities to the residents in the urban sector, the Cabinet also approved the exemption to the city bus service from all the motor vehicle taxes within the municipal corporation limits of the towns in the state. In order to instill a sense of promptness and responsibility, the Cabinet also Okayed to promulgate an ordinance for empowering the Right to Service Commission to levy penalty on the designated officers, who fail to provide services within the stipulated time period, by amending section 17(1) of the Punjab Right to Service Act 2011. This would enable the Commission to impose penalty on the erring designated officers. Earlier this power was vested with the Second appellate authority only.
The Cabinet also gave approval for establishment of 25 posts of Punjab Superior Judicial Services (Additional District and Sessions Judge) and 80 posts of Civil Judge (Junior pision-cum-Judicial Magistrate) along with supporting staff. This would help in reducing the huge backlog of cases in the Judicial courts. As an administrative reform, the Cabinet gave approval for the conversion of 417 temporary posts including 183 of Hospitality department, 14 in Mini Secretariat Canteen Ludhiana, 35 in Punjab Raj Bhawan Chandigarh and 185 of Punjab Civil Secretariat into permanent so that the annual exercise of sanctioning these posts by Finance Department was done away with. The Cabinet approved the transfer of one acre of land free of cost to Punjab Biotechnology Incubator (PBTI) in Knowledge City, Sector 81 SAS Nagar Mohali to construct its infrastructure set up incubation facilities including Quality Testing & Certification and contractual research services to promote and support the farmers, farmer groups, agri- processors, marketers and exporters in the agriculture, food and allied sectors. With the setting up this laboratory food processing sector and implementation of State government crop persification plan would get a major boost. In a bid to check the smuggling of Cigarettes in the state from other parts of the country, the Cabinet also gave nod to restore the tax on Cigarettes from recently hiked 50% to 20.5% (plus 10% surcharge). This would help in checking the sale of smuggled cigarettes, as the VAT on cigarettes in adjoining states was around 20%. It was observed that increase in VAT had not resulted into less sale but such sales levels met through smuggled cigarettes.
The Cabinet also gave its approval for increase in registration and licensing fees under Inter State Migration Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) (Punjab) Rules 1983 and the Punjab Building and Other Construction workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service )Rules, 2008. The Cabinet also gave nod to appoint Welfare Department as the Nodal department for formulation and monitoring of the implementation of Schedule Castes Sub Plan (SCSP). As per this decision the beneficiary oriented schemes/ components under the budgeted SCSP outlay would be controlled by the Welfare Department.In order to provide better educational facilities to the students, the Cabinet also gave approval to transfer five acres of vacant land of Government College, Sri Muktsar Sahib to Punjab University Regional Center Sri Muktsar Sahib so that the center could construct its own campus.The Cabinet also gave nod to the proposal for mutual exchange of 19 kanal 10 marlas land between the Higher Education Department of the state government and Central University Bathinda so that the villagers around the university could get direct and easy access to their villages.The Cabinet also approved the utilization of income worth Rs 16.17 crore to be received from Max Super Specialty Hospitals at Mohali and Bathinda upto March 31, 2014 for the completion of works under the Health Core plan including construction of two district hospitals, seven sub pisional hospitals, 31 new community hospitals and 33 new primary health centers.