J-K govt to benefit from GST, will seek its passage in a legislative assembly

Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir government will seek to pass the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill bill in the legislative assembly within the next 30 days, state finance minister Haseeb Drabu said today.

"We will seek to pass the GST bill in the next 30 days. It will be very beneficial for state of Jammu and Kashmir and we estimate that our tax revenue will increase by Rs 1,500 crore to Rs 2,000 crore," Drabu told reporters before the two-day GST Council meeting began here.

He said importing states like J-K stand to benefit from the GST as there will be no cascading effect of taxes, resulting in fall in prices of commodities. He said J-K, which is the only state enjoying special taxation powers, will make necessary changes to pass the GST bill, which is billed as the biggest tax reform in the history of independent India.

Asked about his government's plan to bring real estate under GST, Drabu said, "We are thinking about it."

GST, which will replace a plethora of central and state taxes, is a consumption-based tax levied on sale, manufacture and consumption on goods and services at a national level.

Under it, C-GST will be levied by the Centre, S-GST by states and I-GST on inter-state supply of goods and services. Different indirect taxes of central excise duty, central sales tax CST and service tax are to be merged with C-GST while S-GST will subsume state sales tax, VAT, luxury tax and entertainment tax.

Earlier, Punjab finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal had said people of his state would welcome the GST.

Badal said financial autonomy of the states would mean nothing if the goals of poverty eradication, employment generation and curbing corruption were not met.