CICU demands to abolish institutional tax for industries

Ludhiana, Mar 22 (KNN) Furious over the Punjab Government's new Institutional Tax Farmaan (Decree) which asks businessmen with properties outside municipal areas to pay tax, the Chamber of Industrial & Commercial Undertakings (CICU) has demanded to abolish the same.

''The Government of Punjab has levied Institutional Tax per annum on the covered area which is more than 500 Sq. Feet wide on Institutions and Buildings located outside the municipal areas in the state of Punjab. Industries operating in these areas are receiving notices from the office of Assistant Commissioner of State Tax,'' said S Upkar Singh Ahuja, President & Pankaj Sharma, General Secretary, CICU in a joint statement on Sunday.

Ahuja said that there is dire need to decentralize the cities and set up industrial units outside the municipal corporation limits, which will not only pave the way to decongest cities but will also provide more employment opportunities for rural youth, set up high quality industrial units with better compliances etc.

''But with such action the government is discouraging the industries which are planning to move out of the cities,'' he added.

He further drew attention to the current adverse situation which the industry is passing through due to COVID-19 crisis, lockdowns and agitation.

''Industry is facing huge turbulence on issues like shortage of raw material, skyrocketing prices of raw material, production loss, cancellation of domestic and international orders, shortage of manpower, financial crunch etc. On top of all that, now a new threat of the second wave of COVID-19 is looming on the Industry. Under these horrific times the industry is not in a situation to bear any more taxes,'' he asserted.

CICU has also written a letter to Capt. Amarinder Singh, Chief Ministry of Punjab, Vini Mahajan, Chief Secretary Punjab, Manpreet Singh Badal, Finance Minister of Punjab and Bharat Bhushan Ashu, Cabinet Minister of Food & Supplies and Consumer Affairs requesting them to abolish the institutional tax, so that industry can survive in this hard time.