Having failed to get the GST Bill passed in the state legislature, the ruling PDP and BJP in Jammu and Kashmir have now crossed swords on the issue of rolling out the new tax regime through the ordinance route to fall in line with rest of the country where the GST will come in force on 1 July.

The PDP was reportedly reluctant to promulgate an ordinance for this purpose as it has already faced a lot of heat in the Kashmir valley where the opposition parties have cornered Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti by accusing her of trying to erode autonomy of the state by making the "Indian law" applicable in the state.

The state BJP president Sat Sharma on Wednesday told this correspondent that the party is building pressure on Mehbooba to implement the GST with the rest of the country.

He said that the consumers and traders will suffer due to double taxation if implementation of GST was delayed.

Sharma said that the BJP has already made its viewpoint on GST known to the PDP during the recent meeting of the business advisory committee of the state assembly.

Senior leaders of the BJP on Tuesday called on Mehbooba after meeting Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu and chief whip of PDP Abdul Rehman Veeri to suggest her to take the ordinance route for enforcing the GST.

However, it is learnt that she has not made up her mind to accept the advice of her coalition partner as she has already suffered loss of credibility in the Valley where the political base of PDP has dwindled due to the party chosing to allign with the BJP.

It is learnt that the BJP leadership at the Centre was also in touch with Mehbooba and Drabu after the special session of the legislature on 17 June was abruptly adjourned sine-die amid noisy scenes without discussing the GST Bill.

Mehbooba is virtually facing the proverbial situation of having been ‘caught between devil and the deep sea’ on the issue of GST.

While the BJP wants that the GST should be implemented here on July 1, the PDP was not in a hurry on the issue. Naeem Akhtar, PWD Minister and chief spokesman of the state government, has said: “We are not in a hurry to implement the GST. Further action will be taken only after the all-party committee submits its suggestions.”

Mehbooba was facing embarrassment elsewhere in the country as J&K had last month hosted the meeting of the GST council in Srinagar to finalise the modalities of roll out of the new tax regime. Drabu had indicated in the meeting that implementation of GST in the state was not a problem.

The opposition consisting of National Conference, Congress, CPM and some independents had before the special session of the legislature made it clear that they will block implementation of the GST, which, they alleged, would erode the special status and financial autonomy of the state. The trading community in the Valley has also resisted implementation of GST.

Drabu vainly tried to convince the opposition and traders by telling them that the state will suffer a loss of Rs. 5,000 crore if it isolated itself from the GST.