Now, pre-poll doles to police, Punjab govt slashes VAT by 9% on goods from police canteen
In yet another pre-poll bonanza for the police, the Punjab government on Thursday slashed value-added tax (VAT) by 9% on all goods, barring automobiles, purchased from police canteens. There are around 80,000 working and retired police personnel in the state, who will be benefited by the decision taken in a cabinet meeting chaired by chief minister Parkash Singh Badal.
In yet another pre-poll bonanza for the police, the Punjab government on Thursday slashed value-added tax (VAT) by 9% on all goods, barring automobiles, purchased from police canteens.
There are around 80,000 working and retired police personnel in the state, who will be benefited by the decision taken in a cabinet meeting chaired by chief minister Parkash Singh Badal.
The cabinet also gave nod to recruit 50 sub-inspectors (SIs) and 1,379 constables and decided to take these posts out of the purview of the Punjab Subordinate Services Selection Board (PSSSB). These SIs and constables will be recruited in Amritsar and Ludhiana police commissionerates and SAS Nagar (Mohali) district.
The cabinet reduced VAT from 14.5% to 5.05% on sale of goods from police canteens on the lines of BSF canteens.
An official spokesperson said the facility will be available “provided these goods are purchased from within Punjab and meant for sale to serving and retired police personnel.”
The VAT in BSF canteens is also fixed at 5.05%, he said.
JOB TO KIN OF HOME GUARDS
The next of kin of the Home Guard volunteers who have died on duty during the past ten years will get government job on compassionate grounds. This decision will be applicable on dependents of volunteers who died after January 1, 2007.
249 NEW POSTS CREATED
The cabinet also created 165 posts in different categories in the offices of civil surgeon in Pathankot, Fazilka, Mohali, Barnala, Tarn Taran, Moga, Muktsar Sahib, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar, Fatehgarh Sahib and Mansa districts.
To ensure proper functioning of the 11 centers of excellence and citrus estates established by the horticulture department, the cabinet gave nod to create 58 new posts of joint director, deputy director, assistant director, horticulture development officer and horticulture development officer (specialised) in the horticulture department.
The cabinet also decided to regularise the services of 26 daily-wage employees working in the hospitality department.
LPG TO BPL HOUSEHOLDS
Free LPG connections will be given to below the poverty line (BPL) beneficiaries (priority household and Antodaya), who were left out of the Socio Economic Caste Census (SECC) 2011, on the lines of Pradhan Mantri Ujwala Yojna (PMUY).
The state food, civil supplies and consumer affairs department was already maintaining an E-PDS portal under which details of beneficiaries have been uploaded. The Aadhaar numbers of the above beneficiaries have also been seeded at the portal and the list has been de-duplicated with LPG consumers’ data provided by the public sector oil companies to weed out the identified LPG consumers from this list.