Industrialists urge govt to issue Budget notifications

Tribune News Service

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Jammu, May 10

The Bari Brahmana Industries Association (BBIA) on Wednesday claimed that the non-issuance of notifications regarding the implementation of the approved Budget proposals for 2018-19 was leading to huge losses to the state industries.

In a press statement issued here, BBIA president Lalit Mahajan said the requisite notifications for the refund of suitable amount in lieu of central sales tax (CST) and freight subsidy not yet issued by the Finance Department has resulted in uncertainty in the industrial units.

He said the units had no option, but to curtail their production and retrench the work force as it was uneconomical for them to sell their products in the domestic as well as national and international markets.

Mahajan said the notifications for the budgetary support to the industrial units of J&K as approved in the state Budget proposals 2018-19 include the suitable amount of incentives in lieu of 2 per cent CST and freight subsidy for the inter-state sale of goods.

“Prior to the goods and services tax (GST) regime, the CST was exempted as an incentive on the inter-state sale of goods by the industrial units to compensate the additional cost of raw materials. Meanwhile, the freight subsidy incentive was considered keeping in mind the additional cost for the dispatch of finished goods for the inter-state sale to compete with the units located in other parts of the country,” he added.

Mahajan said further delay in the issuance of notifications may result in the closure of a number of units in near future that may also lead to increase in the unemployment graph of the state.

The association has appealed to Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, Deputy CM Kavinder Gupta, who is also the Industries Minister, and Finance Minister Altaf Bukhari to intervene into the matter for the issuance of pending notifications of the budgetary support to the industrial units. It has also urged them to provide 5 per cent incentive on the turnover to the micro and small scale units not covered under the Central and state governments’ SROs for the reimbursement of the integrated goods and service tax/central goods and service tax without any further delay.