PDP-BJP tax exemption order ‘scandalous’: Pawan Gupta

Tribune News Service

Advertisement

Jammu, November 21

Terming the recent decision of the PDP-BJP coalition government to give General Sales Tax (GST) exemption as ‘scandalous in nature’, former Minister of State for Finance and Udhampur MLA Pawan Gupta today alleged that the order had been issued to protect habitual tax evades in Jammu and Kashmir.

He claimed that sadr-e-riyasat ordinances (SROs) 360, 361 and 362 issued by the government on November 13 were illegal, arbitrary and discriminatory and violates the Constitution of India by intentionally giving benefit to those who were habitual tax evaders for over a decade.

Under the scheme, Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu has offered 100 per cent remission of the penalty and interest on the tax arrears for traders, transporters and industrialists imposed up to the accounting year 2004-05.

“The government has created class discrimination between honest taxpayers and tax evaders quite contrary to the mandate of the Constitution, which protects the honest, not the dishonest. Chronic tax defaulters are being protected and bail out those who have collected taxes from consumers, but not deposited with the designated authorities for more than a decade (2005-16). I will move court and challenge this order by the government,” Gupta said.

He added that the state government had also violated the High Court order which says that waiver of penalty subject to the deposit of principal tax along with the interest. “The matter remained in litigation before the High Court where the state was reprimanded on numerous occasions for not recovering the due arrears of tax collected by various dealers from the consumers and failed to deposit in the government treasury,” he said.

“After submission from the state, the High Court has allowed the state to grant amnesty to the extent of waiver of penalty only subject to the deposit of principal tax along with the interest by defaulters,” the MLA said.