Village barred from levying ‘tax’ on commercial vehicles

Avneet Kaur

Jalandhar, July 1

Kapurthala District Development and Panchayat Officer (DDPO) on Monday issued orders to the Nangal Lubana village panchayat to stop charging ‘ferry tax’ from commercial vehicles with immediate effect and scrap the resolution, citing irregularities in it.

The move came two days after a report was published in The Tribune regarding the ‘ferry tax’ being imposed on commercial vehicles and vendors entering Nangal Lubana village.

Talking to The Tribune, Harjinder Singh, DDPO, Kapurthala said, “After the locals complained of being forced to pay tax to enter the village for trade purposes, the Deputy Commissioner ordered to review the resolution passed by the panchayat.”

He said: “After reviewing the resolution, we found some irregularities in it and therefore, rejected it. The guidelines of the Punjab Panchayati Raj Rules, 2012, were not taken into consideration. As per the rules, the DDPO holds the authority to reject such resolutions to safeguard the interests of people.”

The DDPO said the panchayat gave a contract of Rs 50,000 annually to a private operator, who collects tax from poor vendors and commercial vehicles.

When contacted, village sarpanch Ajmer Singh confirmed that a letter from the DDPO office was received on Monday morning and they had stopped collecting the tax.