Punjab gets panel on power co-generation

The Punjab government has constituted a seven-member single-window committee under the chairmanship of the chief secretary for giving clearances for the co-generation of power in the sugar industry.

A decision was taken at a meeting with the representatives of the sugar industry in the private sector under the chairmanship of Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal.

The other members of the committee will be the environment secretary, chairman of the Punjab state electricity board, chief executive of the Punjab energy development agency, the managing director of Sugarfed, chairman of the Punjab pollution control board and Phagwara-based Wahid Sandhar Sugars Ltd's Chairman Jarnail Singh Wahid.

Taking part in the deliberations, Badal said the state government would extend all support and cooperation for the smooth functioning of the sugar mills in the state in order to protect them from the onslaught of unhealthy competition from the sugar mills of other states like Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra .

Responding to the demands of the sugar industry, Badal said the VAT on molasses in the state would be slashed from 22 per cent to 4 per cent during the next financial year.

This would help in checking unhealthy competition from the neighbouring states of UP and Haryana from where the molasses was being imported and taxed at 3 per cent as CST.

Badal also mentioned that the state government was seriously looking into the feasibility of imposition of the entry tax/local area development tax on sugar and molasses being imported from other states on the pattern of Rajasthan.

Badal assured the representatives of the sugar industry that the state government would soon take up the matter with the Centre for allowing export of sugar from Punjab to Pakistan via Attari-Wagha border.

This initiative was likely to boost the prospects of sugar industry in the state, which was now badly hit by the unhealthy competition from the neighbouring states.