‘No tax for keeping pets in city areas’

Chandigarh, Oct 24: The Punjab government on Tuesday trashed media reports suggesting that a new tax would be imposed on people in urban areas for keeping pets, cattle or other animals.

A spokesperson of the Navjot Singh Sidhu led local government department said that the state government is framing Punjab Municipal Corporation and Municipal (Registration Control of Stray Animals and Compensation to the Victim of Animal Attack) bye-laws, 2017 as per court orders.

The Punjab and Haryana high court had on a civil writ petition recently asked Punjab, Haryana and the Union Territory of Chandigarh to chalk out a policy for putting to a stop the occurrences of people being bitten by stray dogs or other animals and awarding compensation to the family of deceased persons, he said.

“Under the proposal, no new tax is intended to be imposed. Instead the purported letters circulated in media has been released for framing a policy regarding giving compensation in case of death caused due to stray animal biting,” he said.

Earlier a purported government letter was circulated according to which people living in urban areas were expected to pay different tax rates ranging between `250 to `500 per year for owning a dog, cat, pig, sheep, deer, buffalo, bull, camel, horse or cow.