Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, July 8: Opposition National Conference today said the Government has eroded the fiscal autonomy of the State by implementing Goods and Services Tax (GST) as concerns expressed by the party and other stakeholders have not been addressed.
“We and other stakeholders expressed concerns over GST and none of them have been addressed,” senior NC leader and former Finance Minister Abdul Rahim told reporters here. He said that the Centre has now become partner in tax collection and imposition in the State “which formerly was the exclusive jurisdiction of the J&K Government”.
He said that earlier the J&K Assembly used to fix tax rate but now it has “no role and it cannot exempt any goods from the tax”. “The taxation powers too are now with the Government of India,” Rather, who was flanked by NC president Farooq Abdullah, said at party’s Nawa-e-Subh complex headquarters.
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The former Finance Minister said that they were not against the GST implementation in the State. “The GST was bound to get implemented but we wanted that it should not affect our special position. We presented our own GST model but they didn’t consider it,” he said.
Asked J&K – without implementation of GST – would have suffered huge losses, the NC leader said: “The claim of double taxation is nothing but pressure tactic.” Rather slammed the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and BJP State president Sat Sharma for their statements on GST with regard to Kashmir and charged the PDP-BJP Government with erosion of State’s financial autonomy.
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