Jammu, Mar 31 2018
A senior PDP leader is under scanner for having given multi-crore tax exemption to a private firm for construction of Hydel Power Project in Kashmir.
Sources close to the Chief Minister’s Secretariat said the government has received “credible inputs” that the PDP leader “got the rules bend” to give “undue exemption” in Goods and Services Tax (GST) to a Mumbai-based firm “thereby putting the state government to undue loss.”
Officials said that the firm that was initially reluctant to execute the project, was given a tax exemption for construction of a hydro-electric project worth over Rs 800 crores.
Sources said Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has asked the officials to find out how much loss the state suffered due to the deal and as to why such a special relaxation was given in the first place.
Sources said Chief Secretary BB Vyas and the Principal Secretary Power Development have been asked to coordinate with the concerned department so that the reality comes to fore.
Sources said the Chief Minister has taken a serious note of the “financial benefit” as given to the private firm.
When contacted a senior official in the Civil Secretariat confirmed that the matter was being looked into. “We don’t want to share anything as of now. Things will be clear in the coming days,” the official said.
