PANJIM: In a bid to provide relief to the commercial vehicle owners affected by COVID-19 pandemic, the State government today decided to waive off the road tax for all commercial vehicles in the State by 50% for this year.
Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant announced that the reduction will be applicable only for the commercial vehicle owners paying tax till March 31, 2021.
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Sawant also announced that there would not be any penalty and interest on the pending dues.
“During pandemic lockdown the businesses were down and the government has taken cognisance of the financial conditions of the commercial vehicle owners. The owners will only have to pay for the remaining 6 months only,” he said.
Sawant said those who have already paid road tax that amount can be carried forward next year.
OTS for Water bill: The Cabinet has decided to introduce the One Time Settlement (OTS) scheme to recover the pending water bill dues from consumers.
Sawant said the scheme ‘Due recovery and settlement scheme 2021’ is likely to help the government in due recovery to the tune of Rs 124 crore.
CMRY Scheme for Eng Degree, Diploma holders: The Dr Pramod Sawant-led Cabinet today approved the Chief Minister Rojgar Yojana (CMRY) scheme for engineering professionals, which will help the degree and diploma holders in Civil Engineering to get PWD projects worth upto Rs 10 lakh and 5 lakh respectively.
The project will be allotted through competitive bidding for each slot of degree and diploma engineers below 35 years of age.
Sawant said the loans of upto Rs 10 lakh will be sanctioned by the EDC under CMRY scheme.
The scheme will eventually be extended to other engineering streams for contracts in related streams.
Commercial tree plantation scheme: The State Cabinet approved the scheme for promotion of commercial tree plantation on private non-forest land in Goa through simplified regulatory regime and Ease of Doing business.
The Council of Ministers resolved to approve the Forest Department’s proposal to exempt registered commercial tree plantation area on private forest land and the trees raised henceforth in such registered commercial plantations from the provisions of Goa, Daman & Diu (Prevention of Trees Act, 1984) subject to the terms and conditions as specified in the notification.
The Chief Minister said the commercially useful trees such as sandalwood, rosewood, matti, sagwan, khair, etc, can be planted by the owners on such private non-forest land.
“Forest Department’s permission will not be required to cut these trees once they are ready for cutting in 3 to 5 years period for those availing the scheme,” Sawant said.
Mid-Day Meal Scheme: The Council of ministers also resolved to approve the proposal to allot the order to provide food items (Moog, oil, jaggery) to all students in the State of Goa with Moog @ Rs 105 per kg, soyabean oil @114 per litre and jaggery @ Rs 57 per kg from class I-VIII in view of Mid-Day meal amounting Rs 10.51 cr including transportation, in the school premises to “The Goa State Co-operative Marketing & Supply Federation Ltd”, without following codal formalities considering the prevailing pandemic situation and urgency to provide food grains to the students.
The cabinet also approved extension to the debt relief scheme for mining dependents to March 31, 2021.
It also approved the land allotment policy for Electronic Manufacturing Cluster/ ESDM park at Tuem. The Cabinet also approved proposal for Education Dept to distribute ration via marketing federation to student homes under the mid-day meals scheme.
