The Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly on Wednesday passed a resolution to implement the Goods and Service Tax, ANI reported. The State Assembly passed the landmark tax reform during a special session, after two days of heated exchanges between members of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Opposition.

On Saturday, the state’s Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu had said in New Delhi that the state is likely to clear the legislation on the indirect tax regime by July 6. The tax had come into effect at midnight on June 30.

Earlier, traders in Srinagar had staged a march against the proposed implementation of GST. They had claimed GST would lead to erosion of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir. Opposition members, too, had opposed the new tax regime in its current form and demanded a separate Bill in the Assembly.

On June 27, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had urged the Mehbooba Mufti-led Jammu and Kashmir government to clear the State Goods and Services Act before the national implementation of the legislation on July 1.

Jammu and Kashmir was the only state to not have passed the Act. Jaitley had said failure to implement it would put the public and businesses in the state at a disadvantage and have an “adverse impact” on the economy.

The finance minister had also warned the state government that an exclusion from the tax regime would translate to higher prices of commodities entering the state as well as an increase in taxes on goods leaving the state. Jaitley had said business owners would not be able to use the credit option available under the new tax regime.