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Governor clears cow cess in Chandigarh, notification soon
UT admn to invite objections from the public before it notifies the cess
UT administrator-cum-Punjab governor VP Singh Badnore on Friday gave his nod to charging of cow cess in Chandigarh.
After his approval, the file has been sent to the office of secretary, local bodies, to invite objections from the public before the UT administration notifies the cess. The municipal corporation will be allowed to levy the tax once it is notified, which may take four to five weeks.
As seen in the past, UT hardly entertains residents’ appeals against such taxes. Therefore, Badnore’s nod has almost paved the way for cow cess that the MC House had approved in July 2018.
Confirming this, UT local bodies secretary AK Gupta said the governor’s office had cleared the cow cess, adding that the draft notification to invite public objections was expected next week.
RESIDENTS PEEVED
CRAWFED chairman Hitesh Puri said it was ironic that the civic body was imposing one tax after another, but was hardly making any effort to improve basic amenities like roads.
Congress leader of opposition Devinder Singh Babla also criticised the move, saying ever since the BJP came to power in MC, it had done nothing but introduce new taxes. “Residents will teach them a lesson in the next year’s civic polls,” he said.
LIQUOR, ELECTRICITY TO BE EXPENSIVE
The corporation has proposed to impose cow cess on the sale of vehicles, electricity consumption and sale of liquor. It eyes ₹10-12 crore annual income from this cess.
For the sale of four-wheelers and two-wheelers, MC proposed a cess of ₹500 and ₹200, respectively. It also proposed a cess of 2 paisa per unit on electricity consumption.
The cess was fixed at ₹5 per bottle for the sale of countrymade liquor and beer, and ₹10 per bottle on the sale of Indian-made foreign liquor.
The revenue generated from the tax will help the civic body meet expenses of three gaushalas and two cattle pounds, sheltering over 1,000 stray cattle in the city, and make the city roads free of stray cattle.
WHY THE DELAY
The MC House had passed the cess based on the Punjab Prohibition of Cow Slaughter Act, 1955, that provides for a provision to levy cow cess. However, when the file went for further approval, the legal remembrancer (LR) said the cess cannot be notified till UT adopted the Punjab Slaughter Act.
After several rounds of deliberations, it was decided that there was no need for UT to adopt the Punjab law as it was enacted much before the Punjab Reorganisation Act, 1966, which automatically made it applicable to Chandigarh.
