Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal presiding over a cabinet meeting at Chandigarh on Friday. Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal is also seen in the picture.
Chandigarh, April 26, 2013: The Punjab Council of Ministers today requested the Governor Shiv Raj Patil to convene an emergency session of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha on May 3, 2013 to discuss the “extremely dangerous and critical situation that has arise out of the Centre’s decision to impose wealth tax on agriculture lands in the country.
An emergency meeting of the Cabinet chaired by Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, also urged the Centre to immediately withdraw any proposal to impose wealth tax on agriculture tax in the garb of declaring all lands falling within the aerial radius of 8 Kilometers of municipal limits as “urban lands”.
A resolution passed at the meeting said that the farming community in Punjab was already reeling under an unbearable and crippling burden of farm indebtedness to the tune of over Rs.37,000 crore. The plight of the farmer all over the country was shocking. The decision of the GoI would prove to be the death warrants for the farmers in the country”.
The resolution further said that the decision would not only “crush and destroy the farmers” of the country but would also dealt a deadly blow to the national economy on the whole. The entire chain of business, trade, industry and marketing chain, including shop keepers and arhtias, would be seriously destabilised and brought to the brink of total annihilation by this decision.
While talking to the mediapersons, Badal urged all the regional and national parties to rise above political divide to save the bread-winner of the country. He said he had already taken up this issue with BJP National President Rajnath Singh and senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley.
Badal warned of a “grave social disorder as a consequence of this decision”. The Chief Minister and his deputy and SAD President Sukhbir Singh Badal would lead a delegation to the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh to urge him to withdraw the government’s decision in this regard and not to push forward with the proposed amendments in the Finance Bill. He further said that by levying the wealth tax the Union government was forcing the farmers to shun the agriculture which would put the food security of the country in the peril.
Questioning the relevance of imposing this tax on the farmers, the Chief Minister pointed out that Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh had as the Finance Minister of the country in year 1992 made it clear that the Productive assets would not be brought under this ambit of this tax. He said that agricultural land was one of the most productive assets of the country and the Union Government must refrain from levying this anti-farmer tax on it. He said that this move of the Congress led UPA government would lead to putting an additional burden of minimum Rs 30,000 per acre on the farmer of the state annually, which was much more than income earned from this land.
The Chief Minister said that SAD was committed to safeguard the interests of the farmers and they would not allow the Centre to implement this decision. Training guns against State Congress Chief Partap Singh Bajwa, the Chief Minister said that the move of state Congress leadership to meet the Union Minister over the issue was a mere formality as they were hardly concerned over getting this matter resolved. He said that the Congress had imposed this tax just to ruin the economy of the state and now the Congress leaders were trying to cover up the matter by such gimmicks.
RESOLUTION
“The Punjab Cabinet expresses deep concern and anguish over the decision of the Union Government to impose Wealth Tax on the agriculture land in and around the city. This decision, which will have far reaching consequences, is like a 'Death warrant' for the distressed peasantry of the state which was already confronting huge economic crisis. This anti-farmer and anti-poor decision will ruin the economy of the country thereby leading to complete anarchy and chaos in it. This tax will be much than the meager income of the beleaguered farmer who was already reeling under heavy debt due to the high rate of inflation and extreme poverty. The imposition of Wealth tax was unlawful as it violated the established law of the country according to which Wealth tax could not be imposed on the Productive assets.The Cabinet totally rejects this anti-farmers decisionand impresses upon the Union government that the Agricultural land should be kept out of the jurisdiction of this tax.
The Cabinet also urges Honourable Governor of Punjab Mr. Shivraj V Patil to immediately prorogue the session of Punjab Vidhan Sabha on May 3 to discuss this serious and delicate issue.”
Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal addressing the media persons immediately after the cabinet meeting at Chandigarh on Friday. Media Advisor to Chief Minister on National Affair and Media Harcharan Bains is also seen in the picture.