Uttar Pradesh: Law on income tax of CM, ministers set to be repealed today

UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath
LUCKNOW: The cabinet on Tuesday is likely to repeal the highly controversial section of the law under which income tax for the chief minister and council of ministers is paid by the state exchequer.
As reported exclusively by TOI earlier this month, the provision, under UP Minister's (Salary, Allowances, and Miscellaneous) Act of 1981, was cleared under the VP Singh government. It considered the CM and the council of ministers too poor to be able to pay their own taxes. Since then, UP has seen 19 CMs and nearly 1,000 ministers from all major parties.
Facing a massive backlash after the report appeared, chief minister Yogi Adityanath announced a day later that the provision would be repealed immediately and had asked finance minister Suresh Khanna to prepare a cabinet note. The amendment, if cleared, will then be tabled in the Assembly. Meanwhile, the state treasury paid Rs 86 lakh just this year as tax for CM Yogi and his ministers. Sources said the amendment is scheduled to be presented in the cabinet on Tuesday.
Among other decisions likely to be taken in Tuesday's cabinet meeting is the appointment of a director general of school education under the basic education department. An official said that all directorates would report to the DG and the move was being considered to maintain administrative and financial control over all directorates.

Another important decision likely in Tuesday's meeting is the development of seven municipal corporations as Smart Cities. The Centre has already taken up 10 of the 17 municipal corporations of UP to develop them as Smart Cities. The UP government is expected to take up the remaining seven to develop them as Smart Cities as per the Smart Cities Mission guidelines.
The corporations expected to be taken up are Meerut, Ghaziabad, Ayodhya, Firozabad, Gorakhpur, Shahjahanpur and Mathura-Vrindavan.
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