Govt’s amnesty leaves Gujarat budget schemes behind

It is raining ‘relief’ in the Gujarat assembly right now!

Close on the heels of announcing amnesty schemes for sales tax defaulters and electricity charges defaulters, Gujarat government on Thursday extended its largesse to mines sector proving amnesty scheme for the defaulters of various mining lease duties and small brick kiln owners. Citizens are enjoying the fruit of it being an election year. State government has opened its heart and has been providing relief to all and sundry. 

The series of amnesties kicked off on Tuesday when finance minister Vaju Vala announced scheme for sales tax defaulters of up to Rs1 crore. On Wednesday, it was the turn of minister of state for energy and petrochemicals, Saurabh Patel, who announced scheme for electricity changes defaulters. He followed it with another scheme for defaulters of various mining lease duties and small brickkiln owners on Thursday.

While Vala and Patel have matched each other on the amnesty front, Patel has been a step ahead in terms of providing details of the scheme.

Giving out the details of the scheme, Patel said that amnesty scheme will provide relief to the small lease holders, laborers, miners, small brickkiln owners and the middle class.

He said that scheme has been launched to recover the levied amount of Rs332 crore and arrive at a settlement in 5,876 cases of pending dues of lease royalties, illegal mining.