Punjab govt transfers over Rs 1 crore to SGPC against GST claims of Darbar Sahib

Punjab Government on Tuesday transferred over Rs one crore to the bank account of the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabhandak Committee (SGPC), to settle the pending claim of Darbar Sahib, Amritsar, against the state GST bills.

Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh led Punjab government transferred Rs 1,96,57,190 to SGPC' s bank account.

According to KBS Sidhu, Special Chief Secretary Revenue not even a single penny of the claims raised by the SFPC so far against this budgetary head was pending.

"Notwithstanding the lies that the Akalis were peddling in their desperate bid to exploit religion for electoral gains, the fact was that the process of clearing GST pending dues against the GST refund had been initiated immediately after the requisite budgetary approvals were taken from the Punjab Vidhan Sabha in the Budget Session and the Finance Department had relaxed its guidelines of quarterly releases," said Singh.

"No claims had so far been received from the other two religious shrines--Durgiana Mandir and Valmik Sthal, Ram Tirath in Amritsar, for which the state government had in May 2019 allocated a whopping Rs four crore to the Deputy Commissioner, Amritsar," said Sidhu.

Of the total allocated amount against pending GST bills, Rs 3.5 crore was set aside for Darbar Sahib, Rs 35,000 for Durgiana Mandir and the remaining for Valmiki Sthal, Ram Tirath.

"Singh has already directed the state Finance and Revenue departments to clear any further pending claims for the three shrines, as soon as they are raised, against GST incurred with effect from August 1, 2017. He has also instructed immediate disbursal of all future claims of the three shrines," said Sidhu.

Singh has cleared that the state government was committed to the GST for these three shrines, in line with its notification of 100 per cent refund against this head for Punjab's share.