Punjab cabinet clears decks for CM, ministers to pay own I-T

The Punjab cabinet has cleared amendments to two legislations to allow Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and his ministerial colleagues to pay income tax on their salaries themselves, beginning March 2018.

At present, payment of income tax of the chief minister and his ministerial colleagues is done from the state exchequer.

The draft amendment bills for relevant changes to The East Punjab Ministers' Salaries Act, 1947 and The Salaries and Allowances of Deputy Ministers, Punjab Act, 1956 will be presented in the Budget Session of the Assembly, beginning tomorrow.

Being in the rank of Cabinet Minister, the Leader of Opposition will also come under the ambit of the new legislation.

Disclosing this here, a spokesperson of the Chief Minister's Office said that the Cabinet decided to omit section 2-C of The East Punjab Ministers' Salaries Act, 1947 and section 7-A of The Salaries and Allowances of Deputy Ministers, Punjab Act, 1956, to facilitate the change.

The Cabinet had on February 15 passed a unanimous resolution to make this change, which would help generate "considerable savings" in the state exchequer, he said.

The income tax being paid by the Punjab government on this account stands at Rs 11.08 crore, of which the bulk of Rs 10.72 crore is for payment of income tax of MLAs.