The special session of the Jammu Kashmir legislature reconvened for implementing the new Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime would start Tuesday with the government bringing a resolution for giving consent to GST the implementation in the State.
Finance Minister and senior leader of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Haseeb Drabu would on Tuesday in the Legislative Assembly move a resolution, “The House resolves that the government gives consent to the adaptation of the GST regime by application of relevant amendments made to the constitution of India in a modified manner to safeguard the existing special constitutional position of Jammu Kashmir in the Union of India and the legislative powers under the constitution of Jammu Kashmir.”
While GST was rolled out across India on Saturday, Jammu Kashmir continued with the existing tax regime as the State government failed to reach at a consensus with the opposition parties and trade bodies on its implementation and decided to take the issue to the legislature.
However, the opposition parties including the main opposition National Conference (NC) and Congress held elaborate deliberations on cornering the government on the issue in the legislature stressing that PDP was helping the rightwing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), implement its “nefarious designs” on Kashmir.
NC President and three-time chief minister, Farooq Abdullah chaired a meeting of the party’s Core Group and discussed the issue of extending GST to Jammu Kashmir.
Veteran NC leader and party’s General Secretary, Ali Muhammad Sagar said the Core Group had strongly condemned the PDP-led government’s complicity in a plan to erode Jammu Kashmir’s special status and Article 370 by way of extension of GST in its present form.
Sagar said the NC’s Core Group held that PDP-BJP government was working under a pre-meditated plan to disempower Jammu Kashmir and trample upon the aspirations of the people.
The Core Group meet chaired by Abdullah was attended besides Sagar by other senior leaders including Abdul Rahim Rather, Chaudhary Muhammad Ramzan, Mubarak Gul, Mian Altaf Ahmed, Muhammad Akbar Lone, Provincial President Kashmir, Nasir Aslam Wani and Provisional President Jammu, Devender Singh Rana.
Late in the evening, NC also held its Legislature Party meeting and decided on how to go about the job during the special session of the legislature on GST.
The Congress Legislature Party (CLP) also met under the State Congress chief Ghulam Ahmad Mir at his residence Friends Colony, Humhama residence.
Talking to Kashmir Post after the CLP meet, Mir said that though Congress stands for implementation of GST in the State, it was against its implementation in the present form.
“The coalition government is in such a position now where things are constitutionally standstill and political parties too cannot do much,” he said.
Mir said Congress had from day one been asking the government whether they wanted to implement GST by bringing amendments in Section 5 of the Jammu Kashmir constitution or by way of extension of constitutional amendment 101 of the Indian constitution to Jammu Kashmir.
“They are not authorised to do bring amendments in Section 5 of J&K’s constitution and had to take up the issue with Government of India to make amendments in their constitution,” he said. “And if they want to extend the constitutional amendment 101 of Indian constitution in the State, it will clearly erode the special position of Jammu Kashmir,” he said.
Referring to the resolution that the government would present in the house on Tuesday, Mir said the resolutions adopted was against the spirit of special status and just any eyewash.
“Drabu sahab is writing an essay on a cow and the readers is clearly confused with his description of cow,” he said.
The State Congress chief said in the CLP meeting it had been decided that the party would attending the special session on GST and again meet on Tuesday at 9:30 am in the house.
“We will ask the government what safeguards it intends to make so that the special status of the State is not impinged upon,” he said. “If the government fails to convince us, we will not become scapegoats and adopt our own course of procedure.”
The CLP meeting was attended by all MLAs including senior leaders Nawang Rigzin Jora, Ghulam Muhammad Saroori, Vikar Rasool and Usman Majeed and MLCs including Ghulam Nabi Monga and senior leader Tariq Hammed Karra.
Besides, NC and Congress, smaller opposition parties including CPI (M), Peoples Democratic Front (PDF), Awami Ittehad Party (AIP) and Democratic Party Nationalist (DPN) have all expressed their concern over the implementation of GST in its present form.
The entire opposition as well as Kashmir Inc. has been critical of the government saying the Constitutional Amendment 101 under which the government aims to implement the new GST regime in the State would impinge upon fiscal autonomy and Article 370, which accords special status to the State.
Earlier, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, on his visit to Kashmir, while reacting to protests by Kashmir traders against the new GST regime had said, “J&K Assembly has every right to take a decision on GST and those people who do not want GST implemented in the State due to their ignorance, will make consumers pay twice, first on inputs and then on the final product as they will not get the input credit if GST is not implemented.”
Govt faces GST test as opposition vows to protect Art 370
