Unlike other states of the country the GST is a matter of surrendering the rights to make and amend the taxation laws and above all will have greater implications on the constitutional right of the state over financial autonomy. GST if implemented in the present form will have implications of far reaching consequences on the already eroded autonomy granted to the state under article 370 of the Indian constitution. Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu himself has raised many questions over the implication of GST implementation on the financial autonomy of the state in his several news paper columns in the year 2013 but Drabu rushing to hold a GST session of the finance ministers in Srinagar and pushing for an assembly session over GST without evolving a consensus has triggered a controversy. Though the state assembly as of now has the constitutional powers to pass the bills or laws relating to taxation, but after the implementation of GST by extending article 101 of the Indian constitution the state assembly will cease the right to amend the taxation law unilaterally. So it is obviously clear that GST if implemented in its present form will deprive Jammu & Kashmir government of the powers of monitor its own taxes. What matters is the right of the Jammu & Kashmir government to tax services in the state. So it is obviously quite clear that the right to tax goods, in the case of Jammu & Kashmir, the state government will also be surrendering the special right to tax services. Once the state surrenders the right to tax services it means that state’s autonomy on taxation law will get eroded. While for the the implementation of GST regime is part of a continuous process of constitutional reforms but for Jammu and Kashmir the GST implementation will be tantamount to the surrender of its constitutional powers on taxation laws.
Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti should not forget that scraping article 370 is on top of the political agenda of BJP at national level and keeping in view the BJP’s continuing tendencies to erode the already eroded special status of the state the GST implementation in its present form will prove yet another nail in the coffin of article 370. After all the GST implementation is not only a battle of political ego but an issue of economic freedom for the people of Jammu & Kashmir.
Unlike other states of the country there political aspirations of the people are over and above the economic considerations of the government and Jammu & Kashmir is state which shapes its economy on its own priorities. Interestingly the economic priorities of the people of Jammu & Kashmir are different from the other states of the country. Since BJP presently a coalition partner of Mehbooba Mufti’s PDP has been overtly and covertly laying legal traps in different courts of the country to keep momentum on its commitment to scrap article 370 guaranteeing special status to Jammu & Kashmir state, the GST implementation by way of the extension of article 101 of the Indian constitution in its present form would be almost a political suicide for PDP heading the present coalition government run by it in alliance with BJP in the state. So for the political freedom has been choked by the extension of several law of the central government but now the implementation of the GST in its present form by way of the extension of article 101 of the Indian constitution will be a big blow to the economic freedom of the state. Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti should not forget that scraping article 370 is on top of the political agenda of BJP at national level and keeping in view the BJP’s continuing tendencies to erode the already eroded special status of the state the GST implementation in its present form will prove yet another nail in the coffin of article 370. After all the GST implementation is not only a battle of political ego but an issue of economic freedom for the people of Jammu & Kashmir.
