JAMMU: The BJP legislators and senior party ministers faced a piquant situation in the Legislative Assembly when disgruntled Independent MLA from Udhampur Pawan Gupta pressed for voting on demands relating to imposition of service tax of 12.5 per cent on commercial helicopter services operating from Katra to the shrine of Mata Vaishno Devi, Paddar to Machail and Baltal to holy cave of Amarnath shrine.
Check-mated by their former colleague, red-faced BJP legislators could not muster courage to utter a word when he pressed for cut motions moved by him during passing of grants of the Finance Department.
In the absence of support from the BJP legislators, the motions were defeated leaving behind a trail of puzzles on the real stand of the BJP legislators on the issue of imposition of service tax on commercial helicopter services.
Gupta had submitted five cut motions each in demand no 08 and 25 . Dissatisfied with the government reply tabled in the House, Pawan Gupta went on to challenge the competence of Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu as the matter relating to imposition of service tax on helicopter services lied in the competence of the Union Government in terms of Article 246, schedule 7th item 29 and 30 of the Union List No 1 and not at all lies in the competence of the state govt.
This was bound to bring the matter of fresh taxes, falling in the jurisdiction of the state government, before the cabinet in terms of express provisions laid down in the state business rule to which the Finance Minister did also failed to comply and thus the imposition of such tax is illegal and void abinito.
Besides raising the issue of imposition of service tax, Gupta had also raised the issue of physical assets created on ground out of CAPEX money during the year 2015-16 with the mode of social audit.
The desirability of funds for the potable water scheme initiated under National Rural Drinking water programme, the reasons for non-disbursement of unpaid wages to workers across different departments. Gupta had also submitted a cut motion to known the desirability of additional funds to Udhampur not covered by the benefits of BRGF and Bad Pocket Area Development Scheme.