Chandigarh: The Four Bills were passed in the Haryana Vidhan session on Wednesday. These include the Haryana Water Resources (Conservation, Regulation and Management) Authority (Second Amendment) Bill, 2022; Haryana Goods and Services Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2022; Haryana Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2022 and Haryana Municipal (Amendment) Bill, 2022.
Section-18 of Haryana Water Resources Authority Act-2020 has been amended. The Authority will decide tariffs for bulk water uses of surface water and of treated wastewater on the principles of economy, efficiency, equity and sustainability. The tariff will be based on volumetric measurements of water consumption. The authority will also fix the retail water rates for individual households, industries or commercial establishments based on the water usage.
Haryana Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2022. The Second and Third Schedules have been amended with sections 330, 331, 335, 336 and 352 of the Haryana Municipal Corporation Bill, 1994. It was informed by the Finance Department that on the registration of immovable properties located in municipal areas; two percent stamp duty will be transferred directly to the concerned Municipal Corporation or Urban Local Bodies Department at the rate of one percent each. This process was implemented from April 01, 2021. Earlier, the stamp duty was being paid by the Urban Local Bodies Department to the municipalities.
However, Principal Accountant General (Audit), Haryana in its inspection report has pointed out the procedure for distribution of stamp duty by the Directorate of Urban Local Bodies to the Municipal Corporations and the Directorate is not proper as the Stamp Duty is to be disbursed to the concerned Municipal Corporation only as per the provisions of the Act.
Haryana Municipal (Amendment) Bill-2022. The area and population of most of the Municipal Councils have increased, due to which the scope of work and monitoring has increased manifold. Therefore, there is a need to entrust the entire work of the Municipal Council to a senior-level officer, who can perform the work of these Municipal Councils in an efficient and timely manner. Therefore, the concerned District Municipal Commissioner will be the Chief Executive Officer of the Municipal Council of the District Headquarters and the Divisional Commissioner concerned will be entrusted with the appellate and other powers in the matter of the Municipal Council of the District Headquarters which are presently with the District Municipal Commissioner.