‘Govt to promote investment from outside’
Avtar Bhat
JAMMU, Jan 12: Maintaining that new Industrial Policy for Union Territory of J&K is being chalked out, Union Minister of State in PMO with independent charge of North Eastern States, Dr Jitendra Singh today said that the Government will promote investment from outside to stop exodus of the youth from UT.
Dr Jitendra Singh was speaking in a meeting organised by Traders Federation Warehouse -Nehru market here to honour the Minister for the decision taken by the Government regarding the abolition of Lakhanpur Toll Plaza which was a long pending demand of business community of the erstwhile J&K State.
Dr Jitendra Singh announced that prelude to the Industrial Policy an industrial summit will be held at Srinagar and Jammu in the month of April this year. In this regard Lt. Governor of the J&K, G C Murmu will hold preliminary meetings with likely participants in next week, he added.
Dr Jitendra Singh said the Government is very much concerned for the welfare of industrialists of the UT and he has submitted a proposal to Union Home Ministry requesting it to provide some kind of buffer relief to local industrialists till they adopt to new system.
He said number of investors have shown interest to invest in J&K and also in corporate sector hospitals. There will be relaxation in domicile law for industry investors and the embargo of 10 or 15 years will not be applicable to them. The Union Home Ministry and UT Government is working on it, he added.
The Government is also working for fixing the provision of domicile up to 10 or 15 years, he said, adding had the UT not been formed the Toll Plaza would not have been removed at Lakhanpur as the previous State Government created impediments in it. Besides, the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) would not have been implemented in J&K had the UT not come into being, he added.
Dr Jitendra Singh, while lambasting those who question that what was the rationale behind the UT, said earlier the State Government did not allow application of GST also and for one month the Centre pursued the J&K Government for the same. The State Government and then Chief Minister were adamant despite the regular follow up by then Finance Minister late Arun Jaitley. When LG took over and UT was formed] J&K came under the control of Union Home Ministry and the decisions were implemented, he added.
He said most evident example of advantages of annulling of 370 and 35 -Articles is removal of Toll Post at Lakhanpur. Even the Gem Portal was not implemented by previous State Government. “Had the Toll Post not removed One Nation One Tax would not have become a reality,” he added.
He said when India moves to five Trillion dollar economy goal set by Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, the new entrepreneurs have to live up to new parameters of economy and business. Even if there is initially inconvenience to local industrialists they should consider it a blessing in disguise because the new arrangement will be going to offer capability building in their children, he asserted.
Dr Jitendra Singh said to boost the industry in the UT, Government is going to establish one Saffron Park each at Kishtwar in Jammu region and Pampore in Kashmir Valley. He said the apple procurement has been made by NAFED and Home Ministry is making payment through DBT. There was record sale for apples. Similar arrangement will be made for other produce from UT, he added.
Dr Jitendra Singh while complimenting the traders asked them to adopt to the new and emerging trends in the business.
The meeting was organised by the Federation in which Dr Jitendra Singh was the chief guest BJP general secretary (Org), Ashok Koul was the guest of honour. On the occasion the traders submitted a memorandum to Union Minister highlighting various demands.
Expressing gratitude for abolishing Toll Tax on goods, Rattan Lal Gupta, president of Federation and Deepak Gupta suggested various ways of boosting trade in J&K UT.
The memorandum was submitted by Federation president and general secretary in presence of Dheeraj Gupta, senior vice president, Munish Mahajan, vice president, Abhimanyu Gupta, secretary and Vishal Gupta its cashier.
The memorandum sought indepth inquiry of mending ways of Bharti Wall Mart.
The memorandum demanded ownership rights and godown space for Warehouse as the trading community of Warehouse-Nehru Market, an oldest wholesale market of Jammu is facing lot of congestion due to lack of space with an increase in the business establishments since 1956. Besides, it demanded ownership rights for shopkeepers of Warehouse as they don’t have any space for night stay of outside traders who come to Warehouse for business activities.
It said thousands of workers are forced to spend nights in open because traders can’t construct shelters for them. Moreover nowadays Walmart, Big Bazar and Easy Day are posing big threat to small traders and the traders of Ware House are unable to compete because they don’t have sufficient space for storage of goods. So, separate land be allotted to them to construct godowns so that they can store commodities and save the eatables from scorching heat and torrential rains.
The memorandum expressed concern over the failure of Bharti Wall Mart (Best Price) to mend its ways and violating the norms. It has resorted to unfair ways by selling the goods to the retailers with minimum billing of Rs. 500/- flouting the norms of selling to the wholesalers, the traders alleged.
It said traders have to face difficulties in filling the returns of GST at the end of every month. It is requested that it should be replaced with the filling of returns of GST Quarterly and Tax payment can be on monthly basis as by doing so the traders will be saved from extra spending on maintaining of records monthly. It also demanded simplifying of return filling process.
The memorandum demanded raising the limit of Income Tax exemption up to Rs 10 lakh and there should be 10% tax slab for annual income up to Rs 15 Lakh and 20% tax slab for annual income above Rs 15 lakh. To make to and fro activities of traders from Jammu to New Delhi and vice-versa feasible, it demanded for plying Shatabadi Express from Jammu to New Delhi and vice versa.
The traders demanded starting of direct morning flight from Jammu to New Delhi so that they could save time which got wasted due to afternoon flights from Jammu to New Delhi. They demanded that tourism be treated at par with industry.
The memorandum while complimenting the Union and UT Government for abolishing of Toll Plaza at Lakhanpur also appreciated the keen interest and personal intervention in the matter taken by Dr Jitendera Singh that led to full integration of trade of Jammu and Kashmir with rest of the nation. It was Federation’s cherished desire to get ‘one nation-one Tax’ implemented and the traders are of the firm belief that post abolition of Toll Tax on goods, a new era of prosperity would usher in soon. Traders in J&K are now saved from double taxation besides the consumers are getting goods at cheaper rates, it added.
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