PATIALA: Revenue department notices for attachment of property to recover petty sums the government had formerly said they were exempt from has taken farmers by surprise.
The default relates to payment of stamp duty and registration fee against loans given out over the past decade; 600 and more attachment orders have been sent out in Rajpura and Patiala tehsils alone.
Assistant Collectors (tehsildars) at Barnala, Sangrur and Tapa are ready to send out more. Revenue department officials and those at the office of Inspector General Registration say almost all 140 Punjab tehsils are involved.
The department swung into action after an ill-conceived Punjab Agriculture Development Board (PADB) loan scheme invited serious objections from the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) six months back.
The Public Accounts Committee of state legislators instructed the Financial Commissioner Revenue to recover the pending funds from farmers.
Under the scheme, the PADB gave the farmers loans to generate additional income sources by venturing into poultry farms, cattle sheds, bee farming, poplar plantation, roadside eateries, shuttering stores, ready made garment business in villages, service stations and for buying tractors.
As an incentive, 2 per cent stamp duty and 1 per cent registration fee on the loan amount were exempted.
The CAG audit termed this exemption a violation and directed the government to recover the pending stamp duty.
A sum of Rs 3,000 to Rs 3 lakh was given out under the scheme and the farmers owe Rs 90 to 9,000 at most.
Interestingly, farmers were encouraged to mortgage properties worth many times more on the market against these loans.
Bharti Kisan Union (Ekta) district president Dr Darshan Pal has termed the move unreasonable and unjustified.
“We will fight it out,” he declared, adding that the union would take up the matter with Nabard and the Union Finance Ministry.
He questioned the revenue department’s decision to attach properties to recover the measly sum.
An officer of the level of under secretary in revenue department said that the orders were issued under Section 48 of Punjab/Land Revenue Act. The government exemption was unauthorized, he stated.
The tehsildars and naib tehsildars all over the state are none too happy about the repeated summoning by Financial Commissioner Revenue to report on the progress.
“We are helpless. The default amount is way too less and the number of cases huge,” said a tehsildar level officer who did not want to be named.
It needs mention here that about two weeks ago, tehsildars had lodged a protest against top ranking department officials calling them to frequent meetings over the “non-productive issue”.
SOURCE-HT
