Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, May 18: Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industries (KCCI) today asked the Government to take concerns of the Jammu and Kashmir into consideration before application of GST laws.
In a statement issued here, the KCCI president Mushtaq Wani said he wishes the GST Council members to take care while deliberating on the issue in their current meet underway in Srinagar.
Listing the concerns, he said: “The J&K State constitutional provisions related to taxing goods and services should not get infringed upon in any manner by application of GST regime. The economic activity of J&K State is not same as in other States.
“While it is based on industrial product/ manufacturing in other States ours revolve round handicraft, trading and horticulture produce and tourism services; and therefore deserves to be treated differently with minimum percent taxation on these products.”
The Chamber president said the J&K State suffers a perennial locational disadvantage and hence faced with impediments in so far as transportation and other related services of goods are concerned.
“This has been time and again assured by successive Governments, more so by Abdul Rahim Rather who was the Chairman of the Empowered Committee of the State Finance Ministers on GST and also reassured by Dr Haseeb Drabu the present Minister of Finance that the above points will be kept in view while considering the application of GST regime to the State,” he said.
The trading community of the region has badly suffered due to floods and other unfavourable conditions, Wani said, adding that their survival is thus at stake. Special consideration therefore needs to be given to this fact while switching over to the GST regime, he demanded.
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