Jakhar seeks white paper on finances
Saturday, 23/05/2015
http://www.indiapress.org/gen/news.php/The_Tribune/
Abohar : Congress Legislative Party Leader Sunil Jakhar has demanded white paper on the state government’s financial health.
Reacting over the cess imposed on electricity, diesel and petrol, he said the state had “deliberately deferred” announcing new taxes and cess in the Budget Session of Vidhan Sabha to avert debate. He said the Chief Minister had been releasing cheques to political activists during Sangat Darshan functions to claim popularity at the cost of the state exchequer.
He said Punjab had been recovering 18 paisa per unit cess on electricity from consumers whereas the cess was only 5 paisa in the states of Delhi, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh, 10 paisa in Haryana and 9 paisa in Chandigarh. Now, consumers would have to pay Re 1 as cess on each unit, he resented.
He said only four out of 14 units were functioning since the cost of power generated in these plants was Rs 3.60 only and only by keeping these shut the state can achieve its plan to pay Rs 4.30 for each unit to private plants based at Rajpura. At the Lehra Mohabbat plant, only 250 MW of power was being generated against its capacity of 920 MW, he added.
