In a bid to bring far more efficiency, and streamline thefunctioning of Excise & Taxation, Town & Country Planning, MedicalEducation & Research and Rural Development and Panchayats, the PunjabCabinet on Monday approved the restructuring plans of these four departments.
With an objective to achieve more revenue collections,the Cabinet approved creation of 110 new posts in the Taxation Commissionerate,and 59 new posts in Excise Commissionerate of the Excise & Taxationdepartment.
Notably, the implementation of GST has brought servicesunder the ambit of department, and added a new feature of Audit, which involvesexamination of records, returns and other documents maintained by GSTregistered person. It also ensures correctness of turnover declared, taxespaid, refund claimed, input tax credit availed and assesses other compliancesunder GST Act, which are to be checked by an authorized expert. Resultantly,the number of dealers registered has also increased from 2.50 lakh to 3.55lakh, thus increasing the work load and therefore a stronger personnel base isrequired to be set up in Taxation Commissionerate to carry out these additionalfunctions effectively.
Likewise, excise revenue and administration is asignificant part of the Excise & Taxation Department. The Excise revenuecollections in the State has increased from 435.79 crores in the year 1990-91to Rs. 5794 Crores in the year 2020-21 (Projected figures). It is likely to goup to Rs. 7000 crore in the year 2021-22. In the recent years, an unprecedentedincrease in the Excise related activities have been observed in the State. Theformulation of Excise Policy and its implementation is a time consuming andfull time exercise.
It may be recalled that the Excise and Taxationdepartment was bifurcated into the two Commissionerates i.e Taxationcommissionerate and Excise commissionerate on October 8, 2018. However, thestaff and officers deployed on the Excise side in the Excise Commissionerate isskeletal. After bifurcation of the Excise and Taxation department into theExcise Commissionerate and the Taxation Commissionerate, the roles andresponsibilities of the officers have increased. Greater concentration effortsand dedication on their parts is required to achieve more revenue.
The Cabinet also gave a go-ahead to the restructuring ofthe Directorate of Town & Country Planning. Now, there will be a separateposition of Director, Town and Country Planning, who will be the in-charge ofthe Planning alongwith Licensing, Regulatory and Enforcement functions in theState, which was earlier under the Chief Administrators. Likewise, Director,Town and Country Planning would be supported by a pyramid of 2-Country and TownPlanner (CTPs), 13 Senior Town Planner (STPs), 37 Deputy Town Planner (DTPs),84 Assitant Town Planner (ATPs) for Planning, Licensing, Regulatory andEnforcement work. There would be district level offices in all districts. TheCabinet also gave approval to replace 101 non-essential posts with 175 new andmore relevant posts in the department besides filling up the newly created andvacant posts in the department which will provide jobs to youth.
With the restructuring of Government Medical Colleges ofPatiala and Amritsar, along with attached hospitals besides Government NursingColleges and Government Dental Colleges of Patiala and Amritsar and attachedHospitals and Government Ayurvedic College/Hospital/Pharmacy, Patiala, as manyas 1154 new posts of various categories for recruitment have been created while606 posts have been surrender/abolished under the restructuring. Notably, theDirectorate of Research and Medical Education, Punjab was established in 1973.With changing times, the Department has been working to restructure itself andto reorganize in a manner that reflects present day requirements.
In a bid to further streamline the functioning of RuralDevelopment and Panchayats Department, the Cabinet also accorded approval forits restructuring and recruitment plan against vacant posts. This step would beinstrumental in ensuring smooth and effective implementation of governmentpolicies and schemes in the state.