LAHORE: The Punjab Assembly could not manage to pass Punjab Revenue Authority Amendment Ordinance 2015 as no assembly session held during the last four months.
Sources told Customs Today that it is essential to pass any ordinance within 90 days from the assembly otherwise it expires. Due to non-serious behavior of the Punjab government, three ordinances, including Punjab Revenue Authority Ordinance have expired and not valid now.
Earlier, the the Punjab government had issued the Punjab Revenue Authority (Amendment) Ordinance, 2015. Certain amendments have been made in the Punjab Revenue Authority Act, 2012.
The Punjab government’s special committee made some amendments in it that are:
- The definition of ‘member’ of the Authority has been amended. Amended definition is as under:-
(j) “Member” means a member of the Authority and includes as ex-officio member;”
- Since the Authority is not complete as all members have not been appointed, the Chairperson has been given powers to perform the functions and discharge the duties of the ‘Authority’. For this purpose, sub-section (4) has been added to section 5 of the Act. The newly added sub-section is as under:
“(4) Till such time that the Authority is constituted under this Act, the Chairperson shall perform the functions and discharge the duties of the Authority.”
- Since many changes were made regarding the constitution of the Authority, a blanket validation clause has been added as section 36 of the Act. The newly added section is as under:-
Validation: Notwithstanding any omission, discrepancy or defect in the establishment or composition of the Authority or anything to the contrary contained in this Act or the Punjab Sales Tax on Services Act 2012 (XLII of 2012) or the rules made as under:-
- a) Any action of the Chairperson on behalf of the Authority, or anything to the contrary contained in any decree, judgment or order of any court, the sales tax or any other amount levied, charged, collected or realized by the functionaries of the Authority from any person shall be deemed to have been validly taken, levied, charged, collected or realized under the Act; and
- b) Any action taken by the chairperson till the establishment of the Authority under section 3 of the Act shall be deemed to be the action taken by the Authority.”
