Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Oct 30: Federation of Industries Jammu (FoIJ) has urged upon the State Government for 100% refund of SGST invoice value and 42% CGST support on value addition to all the industries in the State.
In an emergency meeting of FoIJ held under the chairmanship of Rattan Dogra the members had detailed deliberations over the recent Govt announcement to highlight the J&K GST Budgetary Support Scheme for supporting local industrial units in the GST regime. Entrepreneurs were unanimous of the opinion that all the protection / incentives available prior to the implementation of GST regime have been abruptly and substantially reduced resulting in dilution of fiscal incentives available to the entire population of MSME units mostly established by the sons of the soil in Jammu region.
They maintained that the J&K GST budgetary support scheme has been based upon the Central package which the Federation of Industries Jammu had already rejected since it failed to extend the protection available prior to GST regime.
It said the Government has in principle decided to reimburse 42% of the budgetary support of the CGST component for the period the scheme is valid. It remains to be clarified whether all units will be eligible for this benefit. This support should cover all industries irrespective of their eligibility under the Central scheme; reimbursement of 100% of SGST paid by the eligible units after utilization of the input tax credit.
The Government had categorically assured in its several interactions with industry representatives that all the protection and benefits they were getting prior to GST regime will be given post GST regime. This however, has been belied as the incentive has been drastically reduced and now is only in the range of 10 – 25% of the previous incentives in most of the industrial sector. The Govt has not taken into consideration the fact that earlier VAT was 100% exempted in the shape of remission but now the VAT component of the GST is being paid out of pocket at the time of purchase of inputs. The proposed present budgetary support of the State Govt covers only the element of value addition whereas it needs to reimburse the entire SGST component of the invoice. With this meager support the viability of majority of the industry is in peril, they added.
The State Govt has also decided that the Finance Department will consider to make an allocation in the next financial year Budget the impact of erstwhile CST for industries in J&K. Though this is welcome however, it does not cover the loss being suffered by industry during the period July 8, 2017 till the date it is effected.
The Finance Department is to issue a detailed notification specifying the eligibility and mode of disbursement the Government must ensure that all registered units will automatically be eligible and the mode of disbursement be through e-payment / credit month-wise in a time bound manner.
The FoIJ urged upon the Chief Minister, Deputy Chief Minister, Industries & Commerce Minister and Finance Minister for 100 % refund of SGST of invoice value, 42% CGST support on value addition to all industries and 2% Budgetary support of interstate sale in lieu of CST exemption.
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