With resentment brewing against the imposition of service tax on chopper ride to the Vaishno Devi shrine, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh has reportedly told Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh to get the contentious order withdrawn at the earliest.
Sources said following resentment by different groups over Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu’s arbitrary decision to impose 12.5 per cent service tax on the devotees availing chopper service to the cave shrine, the Union Home Minister on Friday told Nirmal Singh, who is a representative of the BJP in the coalition government, to get the contentious issue resolved immediately.
The sources said Singh in turn assured the Centre that the order would be withdrawn within a couple of days.
“The Union Home Minister told the Deputy Chief Minister that instead of involving the Centre in the issue, it was better to get the matter solved amicably between the two coalition partners at the state level as a wrong message had been sent across the country,” a source said, adding that Nirmal Singh told the Home Minister that Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed had primarily agreed to withdraw the tax. — TNS
