STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI), Jammu, on Wednesday said it may resort to financial disobedience by not paying taxes if the State Government does not pay heed to its various demands.
“The chamber is convening the urgent meeting of the Executive Committee in the next week and the prime agenda shall be the financial disobedience,” JCCI President Rakesh Gupta told reporters here today.
“They shall stop payment of VAT and other related taxes with immediate effect if the Finance Minister does not come on dialogue with the chamber to resolve these (demands) issues”, he said.
He said that in this respect any financial loss suffered by the State shall be the sole responsibility of Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu and not of the trade and industry.
CCI took a serious view regarding non-acceptance of the demands, which were submitted during the pre-budget meeting to the Finance Minister, he said.
“We want to make it clear that the Finance Minister has neither cared to hold talks with the chamber in this regard nor he has accepted our open invitation for discussions for himself to prove that the demands put-forth by the chamber are not genuine or shall result in any economic losses to the State,” he added.
The Chamber of Commerce and Industry Jammu feels that the budget was presented purely keeping Kashmir centric issues in mind and no home work was done considering the statistics and any economic implications and budget was just rushed to complete it as a mere formality and an eyewash for the trade and industry, he said.
The chamber also condemned non-finalisation of the industrial policy, the last date for which is June 2015.
“The chamber feels that industrialists in our State are already suffering in absence of single window policy. The chamber also appeals to the government that while adopting the GST regime, special concessions to the industry should continue as has been in the past”, he said.
The chamber being an association of traders and industrialists at no point felt that confrontation should be the right course but the unilateral attitude of the government has left us with no choice whether they are the issues related to VAT or completion of pending projects in Jammu, he said.
The chamber felt that the Coalition Government is working totally directionless, unilaterally and in discriminatory manner.
The chamber also wanted to raise the demand that residential plots be allotted to officials of IPS, IAS, IRS cadre and other related services, who are non-State subjects.
These officials spend life time in the State but it is most unfortunate that after living here for decades they have to leave the State because they have not been given a home in their names, he said.
