29. [ Village Officers' cess. [These words were substituted for the words 'half anna' by the Punjab Act 14 of 1994.]
(1)The [State Government] may, by notification, impose on all or any estates in the territories for the time being administered by it a cess, to be called the village officers' cess, at such rate or rates not exceeding [five paise] [These words were substituted for the words 'half anna ' by the Punjab Act 14 of 1994] for every rupee of the annual value as it may think fit, for remunerating [headmen and chief headmen] [The words were substituted for the words 'village- officers' by the Repealing and Amending (Rates and Cesses) Act, 1907 (4 of 1907).]in those territories and defraying other expenditure directly connected with the supervision of those officers or with the performance of their duties.(2)'Annual value' in sub-section (1) has the meaning assigned to that expression in the Punjab District Boards Act, 1883 (XX of 1883), that is to say :-(a)double the land-revenue for the time being assessed on any land, whether the assessment is leviable or not; or(b)where no land-revenue has been permanently assessed or has been wholly or in part compounded for or redeemed, double the amount which, but for such permanent assessment, composition or redemption, would have been leviable; or(c)where the land-revenue has been assessed, double the amount which would have been assessed, if the average village -rate had been applied:Provided that, in any tract in which, under settlement for the time being in force, the improvement of the land due to canal irrigation has been excluded from account in assessing the land-revenue, and a rate has been imposed in respect of such improvement, that rate shall be added to the land- revenue for the purpose of computing the annual value.(3)The Financial Commissioner may make rules for the collection, control and expenditure of the village officers' cess.(4)[ All cesses now levied in any local area for the purposes mentioned in sub-section (1) shall be deemed to have been lawfully imposed and shall, until the village officers' cess is imposed in that local area under that sub- section, be deemed to be lawfully leviable and, for the purposes of this section, to be that cess.] [Substituted by Act 17 of 1896, section 2.]
