The Goods and Services Tax regime will be implemented in J&K keeping in view the state’s special status and financial autonomy, J&K’s deputy chief minister Nirmal Singh said on Thursday, and asked the Hurriyat leaders “not to politicize the issue.”
Talking to reporters on the sidelines of a function here, Singh said that GST will be implemented according to J&K constitution and keeping in view the special status of the state and “everyone agrees to it.”
“GST is related to financial condition of the state and there is need to study it thoroughly first. It has been studied by the state government. By implementing it, Jammu and Kashmir, which is a consumer state, will get the benefit of about Rs 1000 to 12000 crore annually,” he said.
“To safeguard the state’s special status, we have proposed to constitute a committee for wider consultations on GST where each stakeholder including the traders’ associations, would be taken on board. No one was against the implementation of GST during the all-party meeting in Srinagar but they did say it should be implemented keeping in view the special status of the state.”
Singh said Jammu and Kashmir is not the only state where queries have been raised on implementation of GST. “Other states too have confusion regarding its implementation,” he said.
“We will have to see the pros and cons of it and if the GST is not implemented here, the state will incur huge losses as prices of imported commodities will get doubled. The special Assembly session has been called to weed out differences and for the larger interest, as well as to address the concerns of everyone,” he said.
Taking a dig at Hurriyat leaders, he said “they should not try to politicize everything.”
“I don’t know how much they are aware about economics but to politicize everything is wrong and to stand against such a thing is not right. They are playing with the future of the people of Jammu and Kashmir by doing politics over it,” he alleged.
He said “there was only one concern during the all-party meeting that financial autonomy of the state should be kept intact and every step will be taken to safeguard it. In which shape the GST will be implemented in the state will be discussed in the special Assembly session”.