Shams Irfan

It seems that Kashmir economy will never achieve the desired and much talked about results if the circumstances continue to be what it looks like.
Trade activities In Kashmir valley, which were once paying high taxes compared to the other parts of the state, are touching the lowest ebb.  All the purchases made from outside state got diverted to Jammu province. For this diversion Sales Tax Department played a key role.
Lakhanpur check post continues to play a harassment game especially for valley based traders, for whom the post is out of reach. The unwarranted activities of this post were unbearable to the extent that the Kashmiri traders avoided facing the post and finding an easy option by shifting their total purchases to Jammu province. At that time under sales tax act it suited the Valley traders because of lesser involvement of accounts and  sales tax dept. This diversion of trade indeed was an easy option at that point of time but at the same time margins earned were lesser and capital involved was higher due to the tax paid in advance at first point. After the introduction of VAT same trading activities with the Jammu province are turning to be costlier because of complex accounts needs and apathy of Tax Dept.