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Congress flays ₹200 development tax on pensioners, AAP denies charge
Leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa on Thursday slammed the government for ‘levying’ the tax on pensioners
The Punjab government drew flak from the opposition Congress and a pensioners’ organisation on Thursday for levying ₹200 per month development tax on pensioners in the state.
The criticism followed the finance department’s letter giving the go ahead to the excise and taxation department to collect the development tax of pensioners and retirees from their pension. Leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa on Thursday slammed the government for ‘levying’ the tax on pensioners. “After increasing VAT on petrol and diesel and enhancing electricity rates, it has now given the pensioners of Punjab a gift,” he tweeted along with the letter. Punjab Senior Vets Association, in a meeting in Mohali, also condemned the government order which puts retirees drawing pension at par with the employees.
However, AAP’s state chief spokesperson Malvinder Singh Kang reminded the LOP that the development tax was imposed by the previous Congress government in 2018. “Kindly refrain from peddling false information as the Mann government has neither proposed nor imposed such regressive development tax on our people,” Kang tweeted.
Under the Punjab State Development Tax (PSDT), 2018, any person engaged in trade, calling, profession or employment, who is an income tax payee, is liable to pay development tax of ₹200 per month. As per section 4(2) of the Act, senior citizens are exempted as per the Income Tax Act, 1961. “Senior citizens, persons above the age of 60 years, are not exempted from paying income tax under Income Tax Act, 1961. They have been granted higher exemption limit as compared to normal tax payers. Thus, they shall be liable to pay tax under Punjab State Development Tax Act, 2018, if their net taxable income exceeds the threshold limit prescribed for senior citizens,” reads the information on the official website on PSDT.
