Curfew curbs: AAP bats for special tax exemption to firms helping out their employees at doorsteps

Curfew curbs: AAP bats for special tax exemption to firms helping out their employees at doorsteps

Capt Amarinder Singh should broach the issue with union government: Harpal Singh Cheema

Nabaz-e-Punjab Bureau, Chandigarh, April 8:
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Punjab has demanded that the state government should first ensure an uninterrupted supply pipeline of essential commodities of daily use, including ration and medicines, for the poor and needy belonging to every section of the society in this hour of global distress, saying that it should broach the issue of allowing special tax exemption with union government to shopkeepers, traders and businessmen under Section 80-C of the Income Tax Act, who were helping out their staff, including daily wage earners, by providing them ration and other necessities of daily use sitting at home.
In a joint statement issued from party headquarters on Wednesday, senior party leader and Leader of Opposition (LoP) Harpal Singh Cheema, state Core Committee Chairman principal Budh Ram, chief spokesperson and MLA, Prof Baljinder Kaur, state trade wing president Nina Mittal, said the imposition of curfew post the outbreak of coronavirus had left a large number of those earning their livelihood on a daily wage basis and other small-time private employees, hit hard, leaving them to fend for themselves.
The AAP leaders said that millions of people across the state working at groceries, cloth, hardware, workshops, private enterprises, factories and do other household sundry jobs in private schools and other institutes et al in the nearby cities, a majority of them belonging to the general category, who were not even the beneficiaries of government ration. They said the government in the saddle needed to pay immediate attention to them in this hour of strife.
The AAP leaders, on the occasion, said that the employer traders, shopkeepers, businessmen, entrepreneurs and private organizations could help these families better, saying the Punjab government should take up the matter of allowing tax exemption to them (employers) with the union government under Section 80C of the Income Tax Act so as to encourage them to continue this good job.