Govt went through transparent process to extend central law: Drabu

 

Finance Minister, Haseeb Drabu, Friday said that it is for the first time in 60 years that the state has gone through “ transparent, institutionalized and democratic form to extend any central law to the state.”

 “In assembly or in all party meeting no one was against the implementation of GST, however, some wanted a parallel system, which was not possible,” he said, addressing a press conference today. Finance Minister, Drabu, said that “separate GST is not even worth considering.”

  “Kashmir is a part of the world and world is not the part of Kashmir,” he said, adding “For that (parallel system) the constitution of India needs to be amended and that cannot be done.’’

 While referring to the hue and cry raised by the opposition parties and the traders, what he termed as ‘frenzy,’  Drabu said implementation of GST will not erode the Article 370. Referring to the Presidential,  order which states that “Notwithstanding anything contained in this Order, the powers of the State of Jammu and Kashmir as per Section-5 of the Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir, shall remain intact.”

“The Legislature of State of Jammu and Kashmir shall have exclusive powers to make laws in respect of imposition of any taxes as enabled by section 5 of the constitution of Jammu and Kashmir,” he read from the order.

 While replying to a question that if there is any option for the state to exit from the GST “ if it feels like changing the mind,’’ Finance Minster made it clear that there “is no option of making an exit from the GST.’’

 “The way the required amendments in the constitution were done for the extension of GST in the state, there will be no room for the clandestine amendments in future.”

 While referring to the leading opposition party, National Conference, Drabu said that “the party’s track record is of complete deceit and they cannot take a moral high stand on anything,’’  adding that he was not sure “what actually NC wants.’’

 Drabu said that during the times of National Conference people “usually came to know about constitutional amendments and other things through history books. In that why, what we did was more transparent and constitutional mechanism.”

 In response to question where in it was asked whether the implementation of GST will be a step towards financial integration of the state with rest of the Union, Drabu said, “that had already happened  in 1956 and there was no link of GST with the financial integration.”

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