#DELHI TRADERS STAGE DEMONSTRATION ON GST AGAINST #CONGRESS

Being deeply perturbed over attitude of Congress party which has declined to support GST bill, hundreds of Delhi traders today staged a demonstration at Jantar Mantar at New Delhi against egoistic attitude of Congress  on GST issue under the umbrella of the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT). The attitude of Congress is responsible for depriving trade & industry from this important tax reform and  as such we strongly condemn adamant attitude of Congress on GST-said CAIT.

The demonstration was led by Mr. Ramesh Khanna, President and Mr. Vijay Pal, General Secretary of Delhi Chapter of CAIT and prominent trade leaders of Delhi participated in the demonstration which after starting from Jantar Mantar marched towards Congress Headquarter at Akbar Road. The protesters were stopped by Delhi Police at Ashoka Road where traders shouted slogans while raising placards in their hands.

Protesters participating in the protest said that traders are subject to several taxes & needs to comply with several authorities which has made the life of traders miserable and has also resulted into much complex taxation system in the Country. Since GST is intended to be integrated with various taxes levied by both Central & State Governments, it is hoped that GST will be a more simplified and rationalised tax structure which will make compliance easy and will also offload traders from paperwork but the stalling of GST Bill by Congress has damaged hopes of traders to a great extent.

 Addressing the protesters, Mr. Ramesh Khanna said that traders also have our their concerns about proposed GST but stalling of passage of GST Bill in Parliament, is depriving us from the opportunity of being heard since after passing of the Bill in Parliament, the process of separate legislation for Central GST (CGST), Integrated GST (IGST) will be tabled in Parliament and State GST (SGST) will be passed by State legislatures and such time will give an opportunity to the stakeholders to submit their concerns-added CAIT

Meanwhile, Mr. Praveen Khandelwal, National Secretary General of CAIT informed that a two days Conference of trade leaders from different states has been convened on 5th & 6th January at Nagpur by CAIT to take stock of current scenario on GST and to decide future course of strategy for early implementation of GST in India. With the bugbear of 1% inter-state tax, and possibility of less than 18% overall GST, it’s time the true economic potential of our country was unleashed. The CAIT will launch a campaign to make “elders” reads the pulse of the nation and provide due support. “