Jammu: The Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Jammu has welcomed the Central Government’s newly announced Goods and Services Tax (GST) reforms, describing them as “progressive and timely,” while cautioning that they could result in significant revenue loss for Jammu & Kashmir.
ICC Jammu Chairman Rahul Sahai said the reforms would bring relief to citizens by lowering prices of several essential and daily-use items. “These reforms will bring relief to the common man as the prices of several daily-use items, medicines, televisions, cars, and festive season products will come down. With Diwali approaching, this is indeed a very good and people-friendly step by the Government of India,” Sahai said in a statement.
At the same time, Sahai flagged fiscal challenges for the Union Territory. “J&K may face an estimated revenue loss of around ₹1,000 crore annually as a result of these reforms. Being a revenue-deficit state, this reduction may further widen the gap. However, we remain hopeful that increased consumption in our state will help bridge the revenue shortfall and bring us closer to last year’s figures,” he noted.
Calling the reforms balanced and forward-looking, Sahai added that the reduction in GST on essential items such as medicines would provide much-needed relief for households. He said industry stakeholders were now waiting for the fine print of the measures, which are expected to come into effect later this month.
“These are progressive reforms, and we applaud the Government of India for taking such people-friendly decisions,” Sahai said.
