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The state government issued 14 orders implementing some important provisions of the annual Budget presented in the state legislature on Monday even as the Budget is yet to be passed by either of the two Houses.
The Finance Department did this by issuing Sadar-e-Riyasat Ordinance (SRO) numbers 156 to 168 on May 30 when the Budget was presented and SRO no. 172 on May 31. This is in a clear violation of the rules as budgetary proposals are still under discussion in the Assembly, the lower House that has the final word on the money Bill.
These SROs are related to either addition or deletion of items for taxation purposes as proposed in the Budget.
The act of the Finance Department has been termed by experts as unprecedented and unethical.
Assembly Speaker Kavinder Gupta took note of this when former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah questioned the legality and ethics of doing this when the House was in the middle of debating and discussing the Budget which was presented by Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu on Monday.
As soon as the House assembled, Omar sought the attention of the Speaker, saying that while the discussions had been going on for two days on the Budget proposals, the related SROs had already been issued. “I have the orders with me issued on the same day. Our time has been wasted, there is no fun of discussing the Budget. You could have waited for two days for implementing the orders,” he said. Taking a serious note of the violation of rules, the Speaker ordered that the SROs be withdrawn. However, Drabu protested the move, claiming it was a common practice at the Centre and in the state.
“Directions have been given to the Finance Department to rescind all the SROs issued in this regard,” the Speaker told Kashmir POST. He added that the department had also been directed to withdraw SROs from its website to remove any confusion.
Interestingly, the Finance Minister had proposed an increase in the toll tax in the Budget but without getting an approval from the House, the department issued SRO no. 156 on May 30 to enforce it from the next day. The Finance Minister had also mooted an increase in goods and basic toll on vehicles between 8 and 15 per cent over the prevailing rates and the SROs in this regard too have been also issued.
Similarly, the Finance Minister proposed an entertainment duty on satellite and cable TV operators of Rs 50 per connection per month. This order was implemented by issuing SRO no. 158 with effect from June 1, 2016.
In his Budget, the Finance Minister had proposed raising the threshold in limit in the services provided by chartered accountants and cost and works accountants from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh. This was enforced by SRO no. 167 which clearly mentioned that this notification shall come into force with effect from the very next day.