KV Correspondent

Government, opposition on warpath over GST

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Opposition parties are all set to resist the bid by the government to dilute the financial autonomy of the state. The parties will press upon the government to protect the special status before taking any decision on the implementation of the GST.

A day after NC raised its concerns over the implementation of the GST, CIP(M) MLA, M Y Tarigami, said that he will not allow the dilution of the state’s autonomy by implementation of the GST.

Pertinently, the Jammu and Kashmir government has convened an all party meeting to sort out the differences over the implementation of the goods and services (GST) tax in the state after the Opposition raised concerns that its implementation will weaken the autonomy of the state.

State government has convened the meeting on 13 June in the afternoon before it will pass a GST bill, whose draft was earlier cleared by the state cabinet.

According to sources the meeting has been convened in view of the concerns raised by the business community and the political parties in the state here. Government is scheduled to hold the special assembly session to discuss the GST law before it could be implemented in the state.

Finance Minister, Haseeb Drabu, has however maintained that the special status of the state wouldn’t get eroded after the implementation of the GST and financial integration of the state with Indian Union.

Tarigami said that in the meeting which has been convened by the government he will ensure that the special constitutional position of the state was not eroded.

On Friday National Conference working president Omar Abdullah led a party delegation to Raj Bhavan to apprise Governor NN Vohra of “wider and irreversible ramification” that implementation of Goods and Service Tax law will have on state’s fiscal autonomy.

The delegation apprised the Governor of the party’s fears and apprehensions about possible and seemingly imminent extension of 101 Constitutional Amendment of Constitution of India to the State. “Such a plan will impinge upon the residuary powers enjoyed by the state,” the delegation told the Governor, as per the party statement.

Earlier however Union Finance Minister, Arun Jaitely, has said that in case the Jammu and Kashmir stays out from the GST regime this will badly impact the economy of the state and also hit the common man who will benefit due to the number of goods falling in a low tax bracket.

Drabu has however said that the special status of the state will not be eroded even as he had pressed that  the “over-riding’’ powers of the GST council will affect the states autonomy. The last GST council meeting was held in Srinagar in which the different tax slabs of the services sector were worked out.


KV Correspondent

Kashmir Correspondent cover all daily updates for the newspaper

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