Traders await govt nod to abolish Lakhanpur toll plaza

Dinesh Manhotra & Ranjit Thakur

Tribune Reporters

Jammu, November 7

The patience of the trading community of J&K is running out as six days have passed after the formation of new ‘dispensation’, but the authorities are yet to issue any order to abolish toll tax at Lakhanpur, the gateway to the newly created Union Territory (UT).

Like other parts of the country, the erstwhile state of J&K came under the GST regime in June 2017 but the then PDP-BJP coalition regime continued its own state tax, taking benefit of the ‘special status’. Even after abrogation of Article 370 and bifurcation of J&K into two UTs, the authorities are still imposing toll tax as well as additional GST on trucks carrying goods into this part.

“We were hoping that a formal declaration of J&K as a UT will remove ‘double taxation’ but nothing has been done so far,” Chamber of Commerce and Industries (CCI) president Rakesh Gupta told The Tribune, adding, “Very soon, we will meet newly appointed L-G Girish Chandra Murmu to apprise him of the ongoing double taxation in the UT of J&K”.

“Imposition of toll tax on goods, despite declaring J&K as a UT, sends out a message that Jammu and Kashmir is not part of ‘one nation, one tax’ regime under the GST,” he said.

Highly placed sources said there was a proposal to abolish toll tax at Lakhanpur when J&K was brought under the GST in June 2017 but due to pressure of “influential mafia”, the proposal was thrown into the dustbin.

“It is all due to influence of the cement and steel lobby of J&K that the authorities are not removing toll tax from Lakhanpur,” a source said, adding, “To give benefit to the cement and steel lobby, consumers across J&K are suffering due to the existing toll tax and additional GST at Lakhanpur”.

Wishing anonymity, a prominent cement trader of Jammu told The Tribune that consumers were the worst suffers and local producers were getting undue benefits of the existing toll tax. “Consumers in Jammu are getting cement at a higher price as compared to the neighbouring states of Punjab and Himachal Pradesh as the authorities are hand in glove with influential mafia,” he said.

Rs 800-crore tax collected 

• In the name of local toll tax, Rs 800 to Rs 900 crore is being collected at Lakhanpur, which at the end of the day is being paid by the common man living in the state.
• The collection of toll tax at Lakhanpur resulted in huge increase of transportation cost, hardship to drivers and cleaners, inflation and above all, a den of corruption.  
• The common man is bearing the brunt of such taxes levied in addition to the GST.