Decisions of far reaching consequences of whatever nature taken by political leadership should immediately be backed and supported by procedures and rules for implementation. In the spirit of ensuring certain benefits reaching the targeted groups even if cost loss of revenue to the Government, of course, the measure invested with intent to reap political/ electoral gains later, it should doubly be ensured that benefits provided at the moment may not be stopped or withdrawn later. Things become more complicated when a subsequent decision dictated and backed by procedures, accounting standards and rules warrant recoveries for the entire period, such concessions or waivers were offered. To make things clear that if in the year 2015, the then state Government – a coalition of PDP- BJP – decided to abolish “Aabiyana” or irrigation tax in favour of the farmers of Jammu and Kashmir by declaring so on the floor of the (then state) assembly by the then Chief Minister, why was not the same backed by a due official order and the Government’s gazetted notification as also supported by details of procedures and the manner of how the “Head” of this particular revenue (Aabiyana) in the books of the Finance Department had to be dealt with.
It looks, therefore, totally unjustified for the Government to ask the farming community to pay this tax again which was declared with proper hype by the then Chief Minister as having been abolished? Moreover, it looks illogical to ask for its payment from the farming community for all the seven years in question right from the year 2015 to the current year. Farmers, especially from Jammu division who are dependent on irrigating their fields from the water of canals etc shall be increasingly disadvantaged and put to financial burden as well. When this Aabiyana was collected as a routine even though such a tax on the face of it, under changed socio- political circumstances, was not justified, then what was the need of abolishing it just in the air and not in reality as is put forth now by the Finance Department. It says that no Government order was issued in respect of the abolition of Aabiyana tax subsequent to the announcement of the then Chief Minister in the year 2015. It further put its viewpoint before the Government that waiving off the said tax retrospectively from 2015-16 was going to create complications especially in respect of accounting issues.
The farming community has its own viewpoint and based on genuine grounds that if the necessary formalities etc were not done by the Government, how could they be held responsible and presuming, therefore, it was just a political speech and nothing beyond, what prevented the concerned department from collecting the tax in the ordinary course for the last seven years. In short, this instance is a glaring example of how at certain occasions, sensitive things like the one concerning a prime and important sector of the economy- the agriculture- with which more than 70 percent of population is directly or indirectly engaged , are handled in Jammu and Kashmir. We do not appreciate the likely move of the Irrigation and Flood Control (I&FC) Department of collecting from the farmers the Aabiyana for the last seven years following the technical stand taken by the Finance Department.
We would, therefore, urge the Government to not only restrain the I&FC Department from collecting this tax from the farmers but order for its total abolition. The Lieutenant Governor should personally look into the issue as it concerns large number of the farming community of Jammu and Kashmir and therefore, arrange to issue orders not only for this tax to be abolished but also no recoveries whatsoever to be made in respect of the seven year period- 2015- 2022- during which time the Government did not realise the tax from the farmers. Any step taken to see agriculture and agriculturists are benefitted must be taken without any ado.
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