Jammu & Kashmir BJP president and Rajya Sabha Member Sat Sharma on Monday raised two key public-interest issues concerning the people of the Union Territory in the Upper House, seeking urgent action on urban housing for the poor and relief in genuine Income Tax hardship cases.
Raising the matter during the proceedings of the Rajya Sabha, Sharma highlighted the growing problem of homelessness and inadequate shelter infrastructure in Jammu and Kashmir, particularly in urban areas. He urged the government to prioritise the construction of safe and permanent houses for economically weaker and vulnerable families.
He informed the House that only two shelter homes are currently operational across Jammu and Kashmir, terming the number grossly insufficient for the scale of need. He called for a substantial increase in the number of shelters and a strengthening of housing support systems for the urban homeless.
Citing official data, Sharma said that 19,375 houses have been constructed in J&K over the past three years under various schemes. However, he stressed that the pace must be accelerated to ensure timely relief for poor, landless and homeless families. He also asked the concerned Union Minister to provide detailed information on housing schemes and expedite implementation so that no eligible family remains without housing security.
Apart from housing, Sharma also flagged difficulties arising from recent amendments in the Income-Tax Act affecting taxpayers and TDS stakeholders.
He referred to provisions introduced through the Finance (No. 2) Act, 2024, which set a six-year time limit for filing TDS correction statements, effective April 1, 2025. According to him, the restriction has created serious hardship for both deductors and deductees, especially for financial years prior to 2018–19, where the correction window has effectively closed.
He noted that genuine errors — including incorrect PAN entries and challan mismatches — can now no longer be corrected for those years, resulting in denial of TDS credit in Form 26AS, inflated tax demands, refund delays, penalties, interest burdens and avoidable litigation despite taxes having been properly deducted and deposited.
Sharma urged the Union Government to consider a one-time relief measure or a special condonation window and requested issuance of suitable guidelines under Section 119 of the Income-Tax Act to address genuine cases.
