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| 12.5 per cent services tax on Mata Vaishno Devi ji shrine pilgrims | | MoS Finance not taken into loop | | Early Times Report
Jammu, Sept 6: MoS Finance Pawan Gupta has expressed his disgust with his Minister of Finance Haseeb Drabu for not taking him into loop while announcing imposition of service tax on pilgrims of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi undertaking helicopter services.
"The Minister kept me in dark and has taken a unilateral decision which I am highly opposed to," said Gupta while talking to Early Times.
Gupta also said that many decisions in his Ministry are being taken in isolation which are highly condemnable and against the well being of the people o the State.
Finance Ministry headed by Haseeb Drabu has issued an order imposing 12.5 per cent services tax on pilgrims of Mata Vaishno Devi ji shrine, travelling by the helicopter from Katra to Sanji Chat and back, prompting two helicopter companies Global Vectra and Himalayan Heli, the two air service providers for the pilgrims, to raise prices of the tickets with immediate effect.
Meanwhile , though the Shrine Board has immediately implemented the Government decision to impose 12.5 per cent Services Tax on the helicopter tickets but it was simultaneously planning to contest the decision by submitting detailed representation to the government that air tickets taken by the pilgrims didn't fall under the services category.
Meanwhile BJP today accused its ruling coalition partner PDP of not consulting the party while hiking the service tax on the helicopter service from Katra to Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine.
"The decision to hike service charge on the helicopter fare by 12.5 per cent by the PDP Minister is uncalled for and we demand an immediate rollback of the decision", Sunil Sethi, BJP's chief state spokesman told reporters here.
"The decision was taken by the Finance Minister without taking into confidence the BJP Ministers," he said.
The fare hike was announced by the Finance Department yesterday.
Sethi said that the hike can have "negative connotation" on the religious sentiments of the people of Jammu, especially the pilgrims who use the service to visit the shrine using a helicopter.
The BJP leader further stated that the ideological difference between the coalition partners were coming to fore.
"Yes there are ideological differences, neither have we left our ideology nor did they (PDP) compromise on their ideology. The alliance between the two is based on the common minimum programme called Agenda for Alliance and both the parties have to follow it in letter and spirit", Sethi said.
He noted that the PDP leadership should not take any decision without consulting the BJP on key issues. |
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