Punjab Congress chief Captain Amarinder Singh on Tuesday opposed the Parkash Singh Badal government’s move to impose retrospective taxes in the state, saying it was a punitive and regressive move. He promised one-time settlement for marriage palaces and other establishments that have been slapped with such taxes.
“Imposing retrospective taxes is not only punitive but regressive as well and amounts to extortion which the Akalis are resorting to,” he said in a statement.
The issue had come up during his interaction with a delegation of real estate dealers and marriage palace owners here, a party spokesman said.
He said the delegation had condemned retrospective taxes imposed on them by the Akali-BJP government.
Amarinder also announced that the Congress government would bring out a comprehensive real estate development policy “in interest of everybody, including the investors and real estate dealers”.
He said the real estate sector was a strong indicator of the economic well-being of a state and currently it was in crisis in Punjab.
He said despite increase in the stamp duty on real estate business, the income generated was far less than it was during the last Congress regime in the state.
The former CM said during his time, the stamp duty on real estate was only 6% that has been raised to 10% in the Badal regime and despite that the revenue collection from stamp duty had “declined by more than half”.
{{/usCountry}}The former CM said during his time, the stamp duty on real estate was only 6% that has been raised to 10% in the Badal regime and despite that the revenue collection from stamp duty had “declined by more than half”.
{{/usCountry}}He said the government was harassing the marriage palace owners by imposing such taxes.