PUNJAB

The revenue collection in Punjab has gone up by Rs 10,382.08 crore during the 2020-2021 fiscal, in comparison to the corresponding period of the previous financial year, due to efficacious measures undertaken by the State Government.

An official of the Chief Ministers Office said during 2020-21, the total revenue collection was Rs 42,918.34 crore against Rs 32,536.26 crore collected during the 2019-20 fiscal, reflecting a hike of 31.91%.

The collection from VAT and CST amounted to Rs 6,113.54 crore during 2020-21, while the previous years figures stood at Rs 5,408.12 crore, showing an increase of Rs 705.42 crore (13.04%).

Similarly during the last fiscal, the excise collection rose by Rs 1,068.35 crore to Rs 6,091.21 crore, an increase of 21.27%, against Rs 5,022.86 crore collected during the corresponding period of 2019-20 fiscal.

The GST collection and compensation cess stood at Rs 30,713.59 crore in the last fiscal, against Rs 22,105.28 crore in 2019-20, showing a surge of Rs 8,608.31 crore (38.94 %).

Punjab Cabinet accorded approval to Electric Vehicle Policy-2022 with a move to check the vehicular pollution.

The policy desires to reduce vehicular emission, create , manufacturing, research and development, job creation, ensuring sustainability besides to establish Punjab as a favored destination for manufacturing of electric vehicles, components and batteries. The policy seeks to incentivize those buying electric vehicles by up to 15 per cent in road tax.

The Cabinet also approved allowing open mining at 18 sites in the state. The common man can extract sand at Rs 5.5 per cubic feet by taking his tractor trolley. The cost of transportation is over and above this rate, Housing Minister Aman Arora told media persons after the Cabinet meeting.

The Punjab government established a high-level team to probe Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s security lapse on 6 January.

Highlights:

The Punjab government constituted the Mehtab Singh Gill Committee in response to the security lapse.

Mr. Gill has served as a judge in the past. Punjab’s Home Secretary is also a member of the committee. The committee has three days to provide a report.

The Security Breach is that Prime Minister arrived in Bathinda on 5 January 2022 and was scheduled to fly to Hussainwala to attend the National Martyrs Memorial.

Due to the rain, plane transportation could not be organized. As a result, the prime minister traveled to the memorial by car.

Protesters obstructed his convoy on the way there. He was also stuck in a flyover for 15 to 20 minutes.

The Prime Minister was at the monument to inaugurate development projects of Rs 43,000 crore.

This includes the building of roads and hospitals. He was also scheduled to speak to a group. The visit has been postponed.

Punjab Finance, Planning, Excise and Minister Harpal Singh Cheema on Thursday said that the states Taxation Department has improved its performance month-on-month as compared to the previous year during the first eight months of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann led State Government.

The Goods and Services Tax (GST) collection has increased by 24.5 percent during the months of April to November as compared to the same period of 2021-22, he said.

Cheema said that the total revenue from GST during the first eight months of the fiscal year 2021-22 was Rs 9,612.6 crore, whereas in the current fiscal of 2022-23, total GST collection from April to November was Rs 11,967.76 crore recording an increase of Rs 2,355.6 crore.

Taxation Department has achieved these results by emphasizing on the use of technology rather than harassing honest taxpayers through general inspections, said Cheema.

The Punjab Government is set to start the Census of Indus River dolphin, the most threatened species.

Highlights:

Platanista gangetica minor is the scientific name for the Indus River dolphin.
It’s a freshwater dolphin that lives in the Beas River.
The census will begin in the winter as part of a central government operation.
Punjab’s wildlife preservation wing, on the other hand, will go a step farther and safeguard not only dolphins but also their natural habitat.
The project will take five years to complete.
It will focus on gathering data on species spatial and temporal distribution patterns, as well as Population status, using a well-established and authorized approach.
The Indus River dolphin is listed as endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s red list ().
In 2007, a viable population of Indus dolphins was identified in Punjab’s Harike wildlife sanctuary along the lower Beas River.
Since its discovery, the Punjab Department of Forests and Wildlife Preservation has been undertaking studies on the habitat utilization, current distribution, and population of dolphins in collaboration with the WWF-India.
The Indus River dolphin was named the Punjab State Aquatic Animal in 2019.
Extension initiatives will be arranged by a group of dedicated persons known as the ‘Beas-Dolphin Mitras’ of the river Beas under Punjab’s initiative.
Dolphin eco-tourism will also be a part of the project.

Punjab has collected Rs 10,604 crore as the Goods and Services Tax (GST) during the first six months of the current financial year crossing the 10,000-mark for the first time since the implementation of the GST regime.

Sharing the same, Punjab Finance, Planning, Excise and Minister Harpal Singh Cheema said that the State has seen a Growth of 22.6 percent in GST collection in the current financial year as against the same period the previous year.

He further added that during the first six months of the previous financial year, the GST collection stood at Rs 8,650 crore; whereas during the current year, the State has earned Rs 1,954 crore more, taking the total GST collection to Rs 10,604 crore.

Disclosing the GST figures for the month of September 2022, Cheema said that the State has registered a growth rate of 22 percent. He said that the GST collection for September this year was Rs 1710 crore as compared to the collection of Rs 1402 in September 2021.

Worsening arrival of coal and dwindling supply is triggering a power crisis in Punjab that can hit the state economy. Over 10,000 industrial units have already been closed due to Covid in the state and any outage is likely to worsen the situation.

Punjabs coal-fired power stations are now left with less than three-day stock. With demand expected to go down after October 10, the state still faces power crisis, if the coal situation does not improve in the coming week.

Supplies to power Plants are currently short following prolonged rains that have drenched coal pits as unusually heavy rain last month in major coal mining centres have worsened the situation.

At present, the power demand is around 9,924 MW, out of which central sector contributes 5,010 MW, private plants 2,510 MW, two state-owned plants 1,091 MW, while state-owned hyrdo projects supply 392 MW and solar and 291 MW.

Of the 47,873 rural habitations reported to have quality issues in drinking water sources, as many as 1,132 are in Punjab and just one in neighbouring Haryana, according to the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) which generates groundwater quality data on a regional scale as part of its groundwater quality monitoring programme and scientific studies.

The studies indicate the occurrence of contaminants, including Arsenic and heavy metals, beyond permissible limits (as per Bis) for human consumption in isolated pockets in various states/UTs, according to a written reply of Minister of State of Jal Shakti Prahlad Singh Patel to a question on contamination of groundwater by Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal in the Lok Sabha.

According to CGWB data, in Punjab, Arsenic concentration in groundwater beyond permissible limit has been reported from 10 districts, Lead from 6 districts, Cadmium from 8 districts, Chromium from 10 districts and Uranium from 16 districts.