news details |
|
|
| Govt may opt for mild dose of taxes | | | EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Feb 21
In an attempt to avoid people’s displeasure, Minister for Finance AR Rather may go for imposing mild dose of additional taxes in the ensuing budget session of the state legislature since the feedback he received from cross sections of the society has virtually forced him to avoid imposing heavy taxes.
If sources are to be believed leaders of the trade and commerce besides other industrialists as well as several political activists during their meetings in the recent past with Rather cautioned him not to announce heavy taxes on the plea that it may further annoy people, who are already disillusioned with the coalition government to a larger extent.
The reports said that the Congress leadership too has suggested to the Finance Minister to avoid imposing heavy taxes because of the various economic problems in the state.
Finance Minister has been specifically told by senior Congress leaders that he should not go in for revision of electricity tariff because people in the state have been already registering their protest against prolonged power cuts.
Reports suggest that the Finance Minister may opt for slight hike in the excise of Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL), sales tax and toll tax which together could generate over Rs 30-crores additional revenue.
The leaders of the state unit of the Congress have assured Rather that they too would persuade the central government to sanction liberal financial aid to the state which was required for sustaining the ongoing development activities.
Government has again approached the centre with the request that additional funds may be released to the state for purchasing additional power from Northern Grid. It has assured the centre that it would further improve the mechanism of realising power tariff arrears and for reducing transmission and distribution losses.
Instead of imposing fresh taxes, government will opt for severe austerity measures as part of additional resource mobilisation.
According to reports, opposition parties including the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) and Jammu Kashmir National Panthers Party (JKNPP), have decided to register their strong protests, which may even disrupt the proceedings of the House, if government imposed new taxes.
PDP General Secretary, Mohammad Dilawar Mir, said that there was no scope for the government to impose additional taxes. He said people have suffered heavily because of the prolonged turmoil and the ongoing problem of unemployment had made living for several thousand families in the state very difficult and as such the scope for fresh taxes was zero in the state.
Leaders of Panthers and BJP, including Harsh Dev and Ashok Khajuria respectively said that if the government wanted to increase power tariff it should first ensure that people got uninterrupted power supply.
They said that the government should think of levying new taxes only after it took suitable measures for strengthening the sectors of industry and agriculture besides horticulture.
Harsh Dev said that as far as government's austerity measures were concerned ministers and senior bureaucrats were the first to flout these measures and in this connection he referred to the misuse of government helicopter and aircraft.
He further said the ensuing budget proposals should be tax free.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
