Chandigarh, March 25, 2020 (Yes Punjab News)
Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) President Sukhbir Singh Badal today requested chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh to provide much needed relief to the industrial sector which was beset with a close down as well as spiraling regulatory costs by affecting a fifty per cent reduction in commercial power bills for the next three months.
In a statement here, the SAD President the industrial sector was bearing the brunt of the Caronovirus pandemic. “While the manufacturing units have been closed down, they have to pay regulatory costs as well as salaries to their employees.
Same is the case with various commercial establishments in towns and cities who are staring at an economic crisis due to the current lockdown. In such a situation, if they are all given a fifty per cent concession in their commercial bills for the next three months, it will help them to get back on their feet”.
Mr Sukhbir Badal said similarly all commercial properties, including showrooms and shops, should also be exempted from paying Property tax for the next six months. “This will offset their losses to a certain extent”, he added.
The SAD President said the government should also waive off Professional tax on all employees, saying civil society at large was also suffering economically due to the lockdown. He also advocated a one-time measure of paying full pay for the next three months to all government employees who were being given basic pay only besides regularizing contractual employees so that they could take the burden of their families in these difficult times.
Mr Badal also urged the chief minister to give a serious consideration to the slew of proposals given by him to give relief to the farming and rural and urban communities. He said this included suspension of all loan instalments of Cooperative banks for a period of six months besides deferring interest on them and Rs 2,000 per month direct transfer to rural labour and Rs 3,000 per month relief to urban daily wagers.
“I have also brought to your attention the urgent need to look after the old aged and widows who are drawing pension by clearing backlog of pensions and giving one-month advance pension to them. Similarly, one-month advance cash benefit could be given to all Aata-daal beneficiaries”, he added.
