It was always thronged , it remained always crowdy, it had always an added air of importance , it was an irrevocable mandatory halting point for all vehicles to and fro and it was a den of corruption , Lakhanpur toll post, the gateway to Jammu and Kashmir. Everything has sooner or later to come full circle and so has this toll post now been consigned to pages of history in conformity with upholding and implementing the national principle of one “One Nation- One Tax” after the implementation of much awaited historic decision of One Country – One Constitution – One Flag following abrogation of ‘Special Status’ conferred temporarily but for decades on the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir. By abolishing this annoying , at times exasperating and perhaps decidedly unneeded toll post , items of varied use by consumers like vegetables, pulses , chicken including items of construction material would become nominally cheaper . Even prior to the historic decision of the Government of August 5/6 last year ratified, endorsed and passed under the constitutional procedures , there used to be strong opposition to the very continuance of this toll post and voices were raised to abolish all taxes collected from here going into the kitty of the then State Government and to wind up this post lock , stock and barrel.
Since fuller integration of any constituent of the Republic would remain half done and achieved if there were some barriers and levies anywhere in respect of movement of goods and people ,Lakhanpur Toll Post had to be abolished. With this, as a natural corollary, the UT of Jammu and Kashmir would be at par with other states and Union Territories of the country where all posts of levies of the sort of Lakhanpur or otherwise were abolished after implementation of the single tax regime of Goods and Services Tax (GST). We had, even in its implementation , a system of fits and starts or fragmentation as well as deferments adopted which gave bouts of breathers and legitimacy to the continuance of this post.
There was another basic reason, perhaps ruling over many others, that of earning a net revenue of Rs. 1500 crore by the Government of Jammu and Kashmir that Lakhanpur had its look up giving airs . To call a spade a spade, although there are many avenues untapped for revenue raising and broadening of tax base , Jammu and Kashmir for various reasons extraneous to economic considerations and mainly for political considerations has more or less remained in a static inertial mode and perhaps has the distinction of being a singular (state) , a UT with abysmal limited tax base. How to make good the loss of this whooping amount of revenue, it is for sure that the Central Government was to compensate the UT of Jammu and Kashmir.
However, for every step taken in the right direction and towards bringing about parity and uniformity , some residual disadvantages creep up. Jammu and Kashmir is steadily treading ahead on the path of industrialisation in a non-conventional and non-huge and large medium industrial enterprises and in fact are having a good number of entrepreneurial units , small scale industrial units and even tiny units employing thousands of workers and involving huge term loans and working capital advances sanctioned by various Banks and other financial institutions. Besides, these units are having various other problems mainly of deficit of up-gradation of technology and machinery and avenues of marketing . Now that there would be free imports of many items otherwise produced by numerous industrial units, that would now be forcing them to slash the prices of their products to sustain their limited market rendering them to vagaries of risks of many hues. It is feared that many units might have to suffer a lot forcing retrenching of the working hands while some even would be constrained to shut their units. Not only would all the stakeholders stand imperilled but it would wreak a severe blow for future of the industrial landscape of the entire UT of Jammu and Kashmir.
Not that the UT Government of Jammu and Kashmir is not aware of the problems faced by the domestic industrial sector and agreeably some concessions, if very limited ones, too have been offered to help it grow, must be knowing the levels of hardships these units were going to face in the wake of abolishing of the poll post of Lakhanpur . It must , therefore take stock of the position in a holistic manner and identify those units which by dint of the nature of their products were likely to be hit and must work out a suitable mechanism to bail them out and help them sustain and run units smoothly. One thing , most important which should be the guiding push to the Government is that these industrial units were engaging an appreciable number of work force and their livelihood must not be threatened. The unit holders are not demanding absolute protectionism but wily – nilly not to be left to fend for themselves too.
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