M A I N   N E W S

Badal gets going
Big units lose relief
Sarbjit Dhaliwal and Ajay Banerjee/Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 5
Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today set the tone for things to come in the future as he made it clear that excise concessions worth Rs 230 crore given to leading industrial houses during the previous Amarinder Singh-led government, will be withdrawn.

A formal review to rationalise the concessions is likely to be ordered soon and will be incorporated in the forthcoming excise policy, said a top source while confirming that Badal had wanted to know what action could be taken immediately. Actually, Badal wanted to withdraw the concessions today itself. However, senior officers advised that a proper policy should be framed and the withdrawal of concession should be effected through the new policy and not through an executive order.

At a meeting with senior officers today Badal asked a senior official to name the business families that had been granted excise concessions. On not being satisfied with the answer, sources said Badal then went on to tell the official in Punjabi: “Tussi bhole na bano, tuanhu sab pata hai” (Do not act innocent, you know everything).

The names of five companies were mentioned at the meeting. These included the companies run by Ponty Chaddha, Rana Gurjit Singh Congress MP from Jalandhar, Suraj Gupta, Bhagat group and Amit Modi. Officials informed Badal that they had opposed the concessions, however, the empowered committee headed by the then Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had overruled the objections and allowed the same.

Sources said Badal had asked chief secretary K.R. Lakhanpal and principal secretary excise and taxation Mukul Joshi to frame the new excise policy, modalities to withdraw the excise concessions and to generate new sources of income. Badal observed that the companies should have paid the excise and the money be used to spend on schemes for the poor.

Badal also asked officials to form their own code of conduct as politicisation of the bureaucracies should not happen. “It is not nice for the service, form your code of ethics as this will strengthen democracy and be better for the officers”.