Punjab waives its share in GST on community kitchens

Ruchika M Khanna and Rajmeet Singh

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 21

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Wednesday announced waiver of the state government's 50 per cent share in the goods and services tax on the community kitchen at the Darbar Sahib, even as the state assembly unanimously passed a resolution to seek total waiver from the Centre.

The chief minister also announced similar waiver on GST on 'langar' and 'prasad' for Durgiana Mandir and Bhagwan Valmiki Tirath Sthal, while directing officials to work out modalities for similar waiver at religious shrines of other communities.

Intervening in a discussion on the issue in the assembly, Amarinder Singh said his government would not take its share of the GST on the 'langar' items but would it to the Darbar Sahib.

He said his government in 2002 waived off sales tax on all 'langar' items, which had been levied by the previous Akali government.

The chief minister slammed the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and its ally, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), for not opposing the imposition of GST before the GST Council.

Pointing out that this was not the first time the subject came up for discussion in the House, he said it was obvious that SAD was only trying to gain political mileage from the issue as it was not doing anything to force the BJP-led government at the Centre to waive off the GST on 'langar'.

Meanwhile, the House unanimously passed the resolution to press the central government to immediately waive off its GST share on the 'langar' items at Sri Darbar Sahib and Durgiana Mandir.

The resolution, which was passed by voice vote, had been moved by Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal.

The Congress government had raised this issue thrice before the GST council, but their request had been rejected outright by the Union Finance Minister, Badal said. 

Protests

The second day of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha session began started with Akali Dal and BJP MLAs entering the House wearing black gowns and demanding a complete farm loan waiver for farmers.

The House was adjourned for 30 minutes amid protests by Akali-BJP MLAs over the non-fulfilment of promise of debt waiver by the Congress government. 

Illegal mining

Punjab Chief Minister announced in the House on Wednesday that his government would table reports of three commissions—the Narang Commission on sand mining scam involving former minister Rana Gurjit Singh, Ranjit Singh Commission on sacrilege incidents and the Mehtab Singh Gill Commission on fake FIRs)— before the end of the Budget Session.

Later during Zero Hour, Aam Aadmi Party’s Leader of Opposition Sukhpal Khaira asked the state government about the action that it had taken against reports of illegal mining in Nawanshahr, in which he claims a sitting minister is involved.

He also asked the state government to launch an app that will allow people to report illegal mining.  

Khaira had previously accused Technical Education Minister Charanjit Singh Channi of being involved in illegal mining in Nawanshahr. 

‎Lok Insaaf Party’s Simranjit Singh Bains accused Speaker Rana KP Singh’s son-in-law of carrying out illegal mining in Nangal, but came under attack from Congress lawmakers. He later accused the party of trying to shield its members.

“Congress talks about ten years of misrule by Akalis, but it does not allow others to speak against them,” he said, and later staged a walkout. With agencies