SILENCE OF BOTH GOVERNMENTS ON E-COMMERCE & GST IRKED TRADERS
TRADERS NATIONAL CONCLAVE ON 11-12 JANUARY CALLED BY CAIT- NATIONAL PROTEST RATH YATRA TO BE LAUNCHED
STRATEGY TO DEFEAT CANDIDATES WILL BE ROLLED OUT -CAIT
Hello Mumbai City Desk :
The continuous arbitrariness and violation of rules and laws by foreign funded e-commerce companies in the e-commerce trade of the Country and the increasing complexity of GST are haunting the trading community and has brought the domestic trade at crossroads of ruin and bankruptcy. Even after repeated representations, both Central and State Governments have taken no appropriate measure and are silent on these issues which has triggered the anger of the Traders across the Country. Deeply aggrieved with this attitude, the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) while expressing adoption of zero tolerance policy by the trading community, has announced to launch a nationwide protest campaign on core issues of business community including e-commerce & GST, the strategy of which will be finalized at a two days “National Traders Conference ” convened by the CAIT on 11-12 January,2022. About 100 prominent trade leaders from all States and national or of the prominent business leaders of all the states in Kanpur, the industrial capital of Uttar Pradesh inform by CAIT Metropolitan chapter president and National President of Akhil Bharatiya khadhyatel Vyapari Mahasangh Shankar Thakkar.
CAIT National President B.C Bhartia and National secretary general Pravin Khandelwal said that it seems that both Central & State Governments of the Country have succumbed to the foreign e-commerce companies. Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal has left no stone unturned in warning the e-commerce companies while addressing various national and international forums for the last two years and has been strongly vocal that the law will take its own course if they are not obeyed, but for now the country is still waiting for the law to work and actions to be taken. Continuous disregard of rules and regulations by e-commerce companies, unrestricted sale of marijuana and other banned items on e-commerce platform, dodging Central & State Governments with GST revenue, no action has been taken yet, even after the evidence given by CAIT. An utter silence has been kept by the Governments which corroborate the fact that there is domestic or foreign pressure on the governments which is giving a free hand to these companies to openly violate and exploit India’s laws and in a situation like this the proverb that “Rome is burning and Nero is playing the flute” seems to fit everyone at all levels.
Bhartia and Khandelwal further said that the present form of GST is very complex and in contrast to the GST structure which was explained to CAIT by the then Finance Minister Mr. Arun Jaitley in the year 2017, which was announced by Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi but it is highly regretted that the current GST structure stands highly contradictory to the said announcement. After the demise of Mr. Jaitley, the GST Council has stopped consulting traders and are taking decisions arbitrarily having no match with the ground realties of trade. The GST structure is highly distorted having various anomalies. The proposal to increase the tax rates of GST on textiles and footwear is one such testimony. Its a fact that 85% of the country’s population buys clothes and shoes worth less than one thousand rupees, which currently has a GST tax rate of 5%, but from January 1, 2022, this tax rate will be 12%, which will have a direct impact on 85% of the country’s population. This decision is extremely irrational and the livelihood of small manufacturers, artisans and other sections spread across the country will be badly affected. The entire structure of GST has gone against the ease of doing business, but no one is listening. All State Governments in the Country have willfully distorted the GST for their own benefit.
Thakkar further said that the traders across the Country are very much fed up with the vague policy of the governments and their utter ignorance by the political spectrum and have left with no other alternative but to launch a massive protest campaign across the country. *The trade leaders of the country will decide a comprehensive protest roadmap which will include carrying a Bharat Vyapar Swarajya Rath Yatra across country, protest march, torch procession, Dharna, Gherao of MPs and MLAs, demonstrations, state-level trade bandh and Bharat trade bandh coupled with other protest programs will be finalized by the trade leaders of the Country at the National Conference. The Conference will also decide the strategy for making a roadmap plan to defeat candidates in the forthcoming assembly elections.
News Input by :
Confederation of all India traders , Metropolitan chapter
President: Shankar V. Thakkar
8655500600
