E-Paper
Centre’s bid to impose property tax in J&K raises parties’ hackles
The property tax will be levied on all lands and buildings or vacant lands or both that fall within the jurisdiction of civic body areas unless exempted under this act or any other law
The Centre’s decision to impose property tax in the union territory (UT) of Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) has evoked sharp response from political parties.
The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had empowered the UT administration last week to impose the property tax following an amendment to the J&K Municipal Act, 2000 and J&K Municipal Corporation Act, 2000 through the J&K Reorganisation (Adaption of State Laws) order, 2020.
The property tax will be levied on all lands and buildings or vacant lands or both that fall within the jurisdiction of civic body areas unless exempted under this act or any other law.
Ali Mohammad Sagar, general secretary, National Conference (NC), lashed out at the Central government for the imposition of property tax amid a coronavirus disease (Covid-19)-induced downturn in economic activities and soaring unemployment.
“Far from doling out fiscal help and other supportive measures, the Central government wants to suck the life and blood of people.The measure will push the people to the wall,” he alleged at a meeting held at the party headquarters in Srinagar on Saturday.
Other leaders branded the policy decision as a great injustice by the Central government, when the public is struggling to make both ends meet.
Mohammad Khurshed Alam, a People’s Democratic Party (PDP) leader and a former lawmaker, compared the Central government’s decision to the exploitative taxation regime during the erstwhile monarchical rule in J&K.
“The property tax order smacks of the despotic and anarchic rule that the people of J&K had suffered for hundreds of years. This decision is nothing but a revival of that dark, dreadful and disastrous era of Kashmir’s blood-soaked history,” Alam said.
“Is this the roadmap of Naya Kashmir, which the government had unveiled in Parliament on August 5, 2019?” he questioned.
MY Tarigami, a leader of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), CPI (M), questioned the Central government for its haste to impose property tax “undemocratically”, when it “owes the UT GST (Goods and Services Tax) money”.
“Why is the Central government in such a haste to take such measures in absence of a democratic process?
The people’s representatives must be given an opportunity to discuss these issues. It has become a habit of those in power in Delhi to issue orders, irrespective of their impact or public opinion,” he said.
“The CPI (M) objects to the Central government’s decision amid the Covid-19 pandemic. We are facing several key challenges such as an acute shortage of oxygen in Kashmir, which have been glossed over,” he added.
