Hiking the price of petrol and diesel by about 90 paise per litre, the Punjab Council of Ministers on Friday also accorded its approval to the Electric Vehicle Policy (PEVP-2022).
A decision to this effect was taken by the Council of Ministers in a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann today.
Disclosing this, a spokesperson of the Chief Minister’s Office said the Council gave its approval for a marginal increase in the VAT (value added tax) rates levied on the sale of petrol and diesel in the state.
“The increase in the VAT rate will lead to a marginal increase in the price of petrol and diesel by approximately 90 paisa per litre. This will bring more parity in prices of Petrol and Diesel in comparison with neighboring states,” the spokesperson said.
He said to check the environmental pollution in the state due to emission from vehicles and create public awareness about environment protection, the Council gave nod to Electric Vehicle Policy (PEVP)-2022.
“The policy desires to reduce vehicular emission, create infrastructure, Manufacturing, Research and Development, Job creation, ensuring sustainability besides to establish Punjab as a favored destination for manufacturing of electric vehicles, components and batteries,” the spokesperson said.
The Council of Ministers also approved the New Industrial and Business Development Policy, 2022 (IBDP-2022) which will be effective from 17 October 2022. The spokesperson said the new policy is structured ground key strategic focus areas namely infrastructure, power, MSMEs, large enterprises, innovation, startup and entrepreneurship, skill development, ease of doing business, fiscal and non-fiscal incentive, export promotion logistics, stakeholder engagement and grievance redressal.
As per the policy, the state will develop 15 Industrial Parks covering general and sector specific requirements of various Industrial Sector and 20 rural clusters across the state.
The Cabinet also gave consent for implementation of the state scheme for teachers’ foreign training. The department of school education will send a batch of 36 principals to Principals Academy, Singapore and 30 principals to National Institute of Education (NIE) which is an autonomous institute of the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore in 2022-23.