GST impact on J&K

Written  By Aqib Magray.

Opposition in Jammu and Kashmir had early warned the Jammu and Kashmir government of severe consequences if it implemented the Goods and Services Tax (GST) in its present form, saying the parties would not accept the new tax regime till adequate safeguards were put in place. “Our position is that till we get the constitutional, administrative and economic safeguards, Oppostion  will not accept the GST…They (government) should not do it (implement GST in its present form). But if they still do it, they will have to face the consequences,” senior NC leader Abdul Rahim Rather had said.

The business community in Jammu   and Kashmir is apprehensive about the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax, fearing the state’s financial autonomy may be compromised and huge losses incurred due to lack of awareness on the ground.

J&K enjoys special status in the Constitution of India and has to draft its own GST law.

“The government is doing nothing to allay fears of business community. If they finalise the rates in upcoming meeting, what will be left to the state legislature? We cannot compromise our financial autonomy,” Mushtaq Ahmad Wani, president of Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industry, told

Customs and Central Excise Division in Srinagar recently convened an awareness session regarding GST at its Srinagar office, where businessmen expressed their concerns as well.

“Flexible band of the rates decided by the GST council can satisfy the special status of the state. As per the reports, GST law would increase the revenue of J&K which is largely a consumer state,” Srinagar based Assistant Commissioner of Customs and Central Excise, Jayapal J told ET adding, “right now J&K government taxes only 26 services.”

“There would be great chaos and he losses. Nobody knows what to do. We have to see how industries would be compensated under the new law,” said a business man at srinagar.