Chandigarh (Punjab): The Punjab Legislative Assembly under the Right to Information Act (RTI) has revealed that the income taxes to the tune of Rs 2.76 crore of 93 MLA amongst 117 MLAs is being paid by the state government. This includes former five time CM Parkash Singh Badal and the President of Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee Navjot Singh Sidhu. The disclosure made through RTI shows - Rs 82,77,506 (2017-2018), Rs 65,95,264 (2018-19), Rs 64,93,652 (2019-20) and Rs 62,54,952 (2021-22) have been spent towards paying income taxes of MLAs and Ministers.
It is known that Punjab CM Amarinder Singh in 2018 had appealed to the MLAs and Ministers to pay their own Income Tax, however, only 3 MLAs had decided to follow the CM. These include Congress MLA Sardar Kuljit Singh Nagra and Lok Insaaf Party MLAs Balwinder Singh Bains and Simarjeet Singh Bains. The Congress even before coming to power, had mentioned in its manifesto that the legislators and ministers would pay income tax from their earnings, but that didn't happen.
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Among 80 Congress MLAs in the Punjab Assembly, 19 of them have been given a cabinet rank, wherein, except 1 MLA, the rest of them do not pay their taxes. Apart from this, the Aam Aadmi Party's 16 MLAs and the Shiromani Akali Dal's 14 MLAs, haven't given their consent in filing income taxes, and have turned a burden on the exchequer.
Reacting to the RTI information, Bikram Singh Majithia, a senior leader from the Shiromani Akali Dal and former cabinet minister said that the law should be amended and it must be ensured that every MLA pays his/her own taxes. Another SAD leader Daljit Singh Cheema said that this has been going on for a long time and it must stop, adding that MLAs are paid a salary of Rs 32,000 and provided with all allowances. While, Baljinder Kaur of the Aam Aadmi Party, says that her party never came to power in Punjab and these rules were not made by them. So, an answer on this issue can be given by either the Shiromani Akali Dal or Congress, Kaur added.
