Jammu and Kashmir passes bill to implement GST in the state

SRINAGAR: GST became a fully national tax after the Jammu and Kashmir state assembly and legislative council passed the bill, even though the opposition expressed apprehension about the new tax regime.

The state would send the bill to the President for concurrence and the 101 st amendment would be extended to J&K. Finance minister Haseeb Drabu assured that the state government would ensure enough safeguards and GST would not compromise on Article 370 and Section 5 of J&K constitution in any way. “If that happens, I will not return to this house,” Drabu said.

Till now Article 370 was used only as an obstruction for whatever purpose, Drabu said and asserted on the need to use it as tool for empowering people of the state and not just as a defensive strategy. “Article 370 is being used as a tool to whip up political passions and draw politicalmileage. It is being used for creating fake controversies,” said Drabu, adding that J&K had acceded to India and India had not acceded to J&K.

“We cannot expect the Government of India to change the Constitution to meet our requirements,” he said. Opposition leader Omar Abdullah took a dig at the government by tweeting: “With absolutely no clarity of what ‘constitutional safeguards’ the BJP-PDP government in J&K has agreed with the Centre the sham resolution passes.”