KTMF rejects VAT, leaders to court arrest today
KTMF rejects VAT, leaders to court arrest today
The Kashmir Traders and Manufacturers’ Federation (KTMF) today rejected the value added tax (VAT) regime in the state and said its leaders would court arrest at Srinagar as well as Jammu to show their resentment against the ‘cruel’ regime.
While the Srinagar-based leaders would court arrest at 2:30 PM at Budshah Chowk, the leaders led by Yashpal Sharma, president of Retail Dealers’ Association in Jammu will court arrest at Shalimar Park at 11:30 AM.
While addressing a press conference Tuesday at a local hotel here the leaders came down heavily on the PDP-led coalition government accusing it of implementing the ‘cruel’ value added tax (VAT) regime in a post-haste manner.
Equating the VAT with the dreaded POTA Noor Muhammad Dand, federation’s spokesman said the law has been implemented against the interests of the traders and consumers alike.
While rejecting the government’s claims on prices easing under VAT, he said traders fail to understand how the prices would come down when a number of articles exempted under the previous dispensation have been brought under VAT. Many exempted products have been put in 12.5 per cent slab under VAT, he added.
While expressing their satisfaction over the ‘reunion’ of the two embittered factions of the federation, the leaders said henceforth there are no two factions of the federation and the government “would have to capitulate.”
He said that even as the government is trying to give the impression that the suggestions of the traders have been incorporated in the VAT legislation, the truth is far from that.
“No suggestions have been accommodated in the legislation and we have been put to jeopardy with the implementation of the VAT,” he said.
Dand said that although many other states in India have raised the exemption limit to Rs. 10.00 lacs, the state of Jammu and Kashmir has kept the it at Rs 5.00 lacs.
The government could have deferred the implementation of the VAT, but to earn the brownie points at the centre it has implemented the regime without focussing on the ground realities.
“We have been suffering for the last more than one and a half decades. During this period the traders have suffered extensive losses. But instead of coming with some incentives, the government has brought the VAT,” he said.
The ground position in the state strongly militates against the implementation of the VAT. “We do not have well built roads, better communication system, reliable and assured power supply, he said.
Dand came down heavily on the government for what he said its failure to keep the buffer stock of essentials available in the state at the time of road closure.
More: greaterkashmir.com