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Badal's Lohri Gift for core
saffron vote bank is 90 pc
discount sale
WSN Network
CHANDIGARH: How will you interpret it: Punjab Government's wake up
sign to the crisis being faced by prospective investors and the
industry or the Akali Dal's capitulation before the alliance partner
BJP who has been advocating the cause of this segment over state's
farm sector? Last week, the Punjab government decided to drastically
cut the External Development Charges (EDC) and Change Land Use (CLU)
fee on Friday. For readers in the US, most terms may not be very
familiar but since the story often lies in the details, just read
through the slash in the amounts that were charged earlier and you
will know the significance.
Terming it a 'Lohri gift', the charges have been brought down to
nearly 10% of the previous amount. This is the second such reduction
by the government since it came to power. The charges were notified
in July 2007. As they were said to be too high, the government
lowered them in case of residential projects in September.
The EDC on petrol pumps and gas godowns has been reduced from Rs
3.34 crore to Rs 35 lakh per acre in the periphery of Chandigarh ,
from Rs 1.75 crore to Rs 21 lakh per acre in medium potential zones
and from Rs 1.05 crore to Rs 7 lakh in the low potential zones.
Petrol pumps and gas godowns would no longer be required to obtain
CLU as the DCs have been authorised to give the final NOC, the
secretary, Housing and Urban Development, Arun Goel said.
For setting up industry in free enterprise zone in the periphery of
Chandigarh and in industrial zones of Local Planning Area of
Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, the EDC had been reduced from Rs
53.51 lakh per acre to Rs 5.50 lakh per acre, while the CLU has been
fixed at Rs 50,000. In the rest of the state, there would be no CLU
on industry while the EDC have been reduced from Rs 30 lakh per acre
to Rs 1 lakh per acre. Warehousing, logistics and IT parks would be
included in the industry category.
For educational institutions, these charges have been reduced from
Rs 42.70 lakh per acre to Rs 8.18 lakh per acre in the periphery,
from Rs 38.50 lakh per acre to Rs 6.94 lakh per acre around the
municipal corporation towns and from Rs 25.50 lakh per acre to Rs
1.79 lakh per acre in the rest of the state.
A drastic cut has been made for setting up sports infrastructure as
charges have been reduced from Rs 57.84 lakh per acre to just about
Rs 50,000 per acre. Charges for hospitals and hotels have been
reduced from Rs 42.70 lakh per acre to Rs 15.85 lakh per acre in the
periphery and from Rs 25.50 lakh per acre to Rs 3.33 lakh per acre
in the rest of Punjab.
Further, hospitals, institutions, film and media centres and hotels
have been allowed up to 25% of the industrial component in industry
parks. This has been done to "attract investment and channelize land
from unproductive use into productive areas," Goel said.
In a significant step, residential colonies that are less than 10
acres in plan, but which had applied before July 16, 2007 would now
be granted licenses.
16 January 2008
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