Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly on Tuesday passed five Bills, including those related to Ease of Doing Business, to amend the Goods and Services Tax Act, and the Municipal Act, 2000.
Seven Bills were moved in the Assembly by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah. While two – related to an increase in the salaries of ministers and legislators – were withdrawn, five others were passed by the House.
The Assembly passed the Bill to amend the Jammu and Kashmir Municipal Act, 2000 (L.A. Bill No. 10 of 2026), and to amend the Jammu and Kashmir Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 (L.A. Bill No. 12 of 2026).
It also passed a Bill to consolidate and amend the law to replace permission-based control with rule-based governance and to enable citizens and enterprises to plan, invest, and work with confidence, and to foster Ease of Doing Business and Ease of Living in a manner that generates employment, attracts investment, and sustains long-term economic growth.
The Assembly also passed a Bill to amend certain enactments for decriminalising and rationalising offences for Ease of Living and Ease of Doing Business (L.A. Bill No. 11 of 2026) and to repeal certain Acts.
The House also passed a Bill to amend the Jammu and Kashmir State Legislature Members’ Pension Act 1984.
However, it withdrew two Bills – one to amend the Jammu and Kashmir Ministers’ and Ministers of State Salaries Act, 1956, and the other Bill to amend the Salaries and Allowances of Members of the Jammu and Kashmir State Legislature Act, 1960.
These bills were moved by the chief minister in the Assembly on Monday.
As BJP MLAs raised some objections to the bills, the chief minister said he would withdraw them if they are not passed unanimously.
BJP leader Sham Lal Sharma, while opposing the bills, said the government should instead focus on providing relief to daily-wagers and contractual employees.
To this, Abdullah replied, “If they (BJP) had the intention of helping daily-wagers, (BJP MLA Surjit Singh) Slathia should have said this in the report. Not one BJP MLA has written a dissenting note. Did any MLA raise an objection? No. If they had so much sympathy for daily-wagers, why did they not help them before 2024?” He was referring to the committee framed to examine the salary hikes of ministers and MLAs.
The chief minister said he was not in favour of increasing the salaries.
“I told my colleagues that until these bills are passed unanimously, I will not press for them,” he said, appealing to the House to withdraw the bill.
The Speaker put the bills to a vote, and they were withdrawn.
The BJP members did not vote in favour of the withdrawal during the voice vote, and were chided by the National Conference members for it.
Nevertheless, a bill to amend the Jammu and Kashmir State Legislature Members’ Pension Act, 1984, was introduced in the House and passed by voice vote.
While the chief minister had sought withdrawal of the bill, members from both the treasury and opposition benches said that since the bill concerned those legislators who have retired, it should not be withdrawn.
“It will now be easy for me to go home as I have a pensioner at home. We all will be pensioned some day,” the chief minister said, introducing the bill.
The House also had discussions on the Bill to amend the Jammu and Kashmir Municipal Act, 2000. BJP MLA R S Pathania said he was not able to understand what the government wanted to achieve by the amendments.
“They want to do the delimitation of wards. But the government does not do it. It is the power of the chief electoral officer,” he said, adding that the Bill creates confusion.
“It talks about deputy commissioner, SEC (State Election Commission) or any other authority. The government wants to assume the power of delimitation,” he said, and demanded that a House committee study the Bill.
He also questioned whether the government even wants to hold panchayat and municipal elections.
Responding to Pathania, the chief minister said the MLA is a good lawyer, and lawyers have a quality that they argue even if they do not necessarily believe in it.
“They just want to represent their client properly. He (MLA) tried to find an error for the sake of it. We wanted to remove confusion about five-member municipal bodies and seven-member bodies in the Act. There will be a minimum of seven members in each of the municipal bodies,” Abdullah said.
He said the job of marking territorial jurisdiction of wards is anyway done by the respective deputy commissioners. “In the past also, DCs did it. We have removed the CEO to remove confusion,” he asserted.
Responding to Pathania’s query about elections to local bodies, the chief minister said the government’s intention to hold panchayat elections is “just as serious as yours about granting statehood”.
“They (BJP) will ask when the elections will be held? I would say at an appropriate time. When is that? It will be when it will be,” Abdullah said.
He appealed to the House to pass the “minor amendments” aimed at removing confusion.
The Speaker then put the Bill to a vote, and it was passed by voice vote.
CM says govt’s job is to provide enabling environment for businesses to thrive
Srinagar: I am an out-and-out capitalist”, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said on Tuesday as the Legislative Assembly passed his ease of doing business bill.
Speaking on the floor of the House during the ongoing Autumn session of the J&K Assembly, Abdullah said it is not the government’s job to run hotels and other businesses; it only has to provide an enabling environment for businesses to thrive.
The Jammu and Kashmir Ease of Doing Business Bill, 2026 found support from some legislators, such as NC MLA Farooq Shah and BJP MLA PK Gupta, while others like CPI(M) MLA M Y Tarigami criticised it.
The Bill was introduced by the chief minister, who also holds the portfolio of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs in the assembly.
MLAs discussed the Bill that aims to consolidate and amend the existing law and replace the “permission-based control with rule-based governance and to enable citizens and enterprises to plan, invest, and work with confidence”.
According to the government, it will also foster ‘Ease of Doing Business’ and ‘Ease of Living’ in a manner that generates employment, attracts investment, and sustains long-term economic growth in J&K.
CPI(M) MLA Tarigami said such moves in the past “have led to making rich people richer while there is no increase in employment”.
Responding to the MLAs, the chief minister said the Bill is an example of cooperative federalism.
The chief minister said Tarigami and his thoughts match on many issues, but on this “we differ”.
“I am an out-and-out capitalist. I want private industry to come and for it to thrive,” he said.
“We also have a habit of not trusting anyone. We have this belief that everyone is here to loot and destroy us. We hope that investors are coming with good intentions. We want to make it easy for investors. We will tell them what they cannot do. Rest, permissions will be granted automatically,” he said.
Abdullah said sitting on decisions is a form of corruption. “Under this bill, if a particular permission is not given within the stipulated time, it will be deemed to have been granted. The investors will not have to grease the palms to move their files,” he added.
He added that the government has kept a provision for third-party certification. “We have not given a free hand to investors to do whatever they want. If they are found to violate the law, their project will be taken over by the government,” he assured the House.
The Speaker then put the Bill to a vote, and it was passed.
