Srinagar, Jan 31: Even as the proposed Goods and Service Tax has raised some concerns among the traders’ community in J&K citing their ignorance about the law, Valley’s apex industrial body, the Federation Chamber of Industries Kashmir, has come to the support of the impending regime.
 President FCIK Shakeel Qalander talking to Greater Kashmir said that J&K could earn a whopping Rs 8,000 crore annually by switching over to the GST.
 “The FCIK has been the first to favour early implementation of GST in the state in place of existing Value Added Tax and we have very valid reasons for that,” Qalandar said, explaining that the new tax regime would raise state’s revenues manifold.
 He said the inbuilt mechanism in the new tax was expected to check the undervaluation of bills for the goods imported into the state.
 Besides, he said, the GST would help traders in maintaining competition in the market besides helping the industry in reducing its cost of production.
  “So in view of these benefits, the government should not hesitate to introduce the new tax,” Qalander said.
 However, he said, there was a need to conduct awareness programmes in each district of the state to make the entrepreneurs aware about the proposed modalities of GST.
 He said the government in consultation with all stakeholders needed to assess carefully various aspects of implementation of a flawless model of the new tax.
  “The interaction of the state government authorities with relevant chambers of the state would make them conceive the difficulties and doubts on ground that in turn may help in reaching a consensus with other states,” FCIK president said.
 He, however, added that the issue of protecting the interests of the industry under the new tax regime needed to be discussed separately.
 Mention to be made that some other business bodies have expressed their concern with the new tax regime. Pertinently, Finance Minister Abdul Rahim Rather in the recent finance ministers’ meet at New Delhi strongly pleaded that the GST should be introduced only after addressing the concerns of the traders and disseminating information about the new tax regime.

Lastupdate on : Sun, 31 Jan 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sun, 31 Jan 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Mon, 1 Feb 2010 00:00:00 IST