Realty projects to add Rs 8K cr in state’s kitty, says Cheema
Amid concerns over how the Punjab Government would meet its ambitious target of earning Rs 8,000 crore extra next fiscal despite refraining from levying new taxes, Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema said the plan of building new townships would come handy.
According to sources, the government may avoid going in for land acquisition because of prolonged process and instead opt for land polling.
Under land pooling, owners have the option of getting residential or commercial units in exchange for their acquired land.
In an exclusive interview to The Tribune, Cheema said the government was in final stages of creating an ambitious plan of building new townships between Mohali and Ropar, and Patiala and Bathinda, besides Ludhiana and Jalandhar.
“There is a lot of pressure on land for housing in Mohali district. Colonisers, buoyed by increasing demand, are expanding in Zirakpur, Dera Bassi, Lalru, Banur, Kurali and other small satellite towns of Mohali,” he said.
“New townships have been proposed for Sangrur, Bathinda, Amritsar and Gurdaspur. These will be as planned as Chandigarh and offer all civic amenities akin to Chandigarh. These will be rolled out soon. Moreover, wherever land has already been acquired, we are expediting its sale to real estate developers. This should set our cash registers ringing,” he said.
Asked if this year, like in the past, he planned to go in for off Budget additional resource mobilisation, Cheema replied in the affirmative.
“In the ongoing fiscal, there is an increase of Rs 2,500 crore in stamp duty collections. This has been achieved by increasing the collector rate in all major cities. The collector rates had not been revised for years,” he said.
Cheema said tax intelligence units were helping them in better tax compliance by targeting tax evaders.
Punjab’s public debt is set to breach the Rs 4 lakh crore mark by March 2026.
When asked about this burgeoning public debt, the Finance Minister said the rise in debt was in line with the rise in the Gross State Domestic Product.
