E-Paper
15 private buses plying without taxes in Punjab impounded
The state transport department has impounded 15 buses of private companies plying without tax in Punjab
The Punjab transport department on Wednesday impounded 15 buses of private companies plying without tax in the state.
Disclosing this, transport minister Amarinder Singh Raja Warring said complaints of private buses operating without tax were continuously pouring in, hence special investigation teams of the department were constituted. He said that during raids in four districts --- Faridkot, Bathinda, Amritsar and Ludhiana --- 15 buses were impounded.
In Faridkot, two buses each of Jujhar Bus Service and New Deep Bus Service have been impounded. Similarly, two buses of New Deep, one each of Orbit Aviation and Rajdhani Bus Service were impounded in Bathinda. Besidestwo buses of Baba Budha Transport Service was impounded Amritsar and one bus of Orbit Aviation, two buses of Jujhar Bus Service, one of Libra Bus Service and one of Nagpal Bus Service were impounded in Ludhiana.
Meanwhile, the transport minster assured that a transparent and apt bus timetable would be worked out and implemented soon, besides giving exemption from taxes to bus operators for the period of Covid pandemic.
During a series of meetings at Punjab Bhawan in Chandigarh, Warring said he was aware that around 90% of the transport industry is associated with small bus operators and employing more than 1.5 lakh people in the state.
“While the state will deal sternly with the big bus mafia, small bus operators will not be allowed to die,” the minister told a delegation of bus operators led by Faridkot MLA Kushaldeep Singh Dhillon.
On the demand for tax exemption, the minister said the department will come up with a kilometre-wise slab scheme for tax exemption in the next few days, besides considering extending the amnesty scheme till March 31, 2022.
He said the tax defaulter bus operators will have to pay arrears of pre-Covid era.
