Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir Coordination Committee (JKCC), an amalgam of trade, industry, tourism, travel, horticulture and civil society formations, accuses the former Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu of acting as a collaborator for eroding our fiscal autonomy by facilitating extension of GST Act into J&K in most deceitful and illegal manner.
In a meeting held in Srinagar, the JKCC members said that Drabu played a dirty game by divesting us of whatever fiscal powers were left out under Article 370, in his dream to attain greener pastures.
“The people are not naive to understand the game plan of the ex-minister who previously had openly and vociferously opposed the extension of union Goods and Service Tax law for political reasons. Not only the GST law but the minister also facilitated the applicability of Securitization and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement Act (SARFAESI),” they said.
The JKCC in the statement added, “before its deceitful introduction of SARFAESI, the said ex-minister is on record to have all along maintained that he would not allow this Act to pass into the state owing to our special status and instead would introduce Asset Reconstruction Company to protect the interests of banks and borrowers. He was also the facilitator to many other laws considered to be detrimental to our special status including that of the Statistical Act.”
JKCC criticized the state government for paying no heed to the repeated reminders of the amalgam about the hidden agenda of Haseeb Drabu and for waking up too late to act against him.
“He had done much damage to our special status and its economy before the state government got up to show him the door. It is only after he attempted to dilute the disputed political character of Jammu and Kashmir, that the state government smelt his rat and shunted him out,” they said.
JKCC urged the state government to revisit all the schemes, policies rules and regulations put in practice by the said ex-minister in order to undo full or portion of these policies found detrimental to our political and economic interests. The government should also initiate serious and meaningful deliberations on repealing of the GST law and replacing it with state’s own law, they said.
