Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 24: Feeling dejected with the recently presented budget in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly by Finance Minister Haseeb Ahmed Drabu, traders fraternity has decided to go on agitation if the Government fails to redress the demands of the fraternity in next two days.
This was stated by Rakesh Gupta, President, Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) while interacting with reporters during a press conference here this evening. He was accompanied by Arun Gupta, general secretary, CCI, Sham Lal Langar, senior vice president, Deepak Aggarwal, vice president and Ashu Gupta, treasurer.
Rakesh Gupta disclosed that the decision to go against the Government’s budget was taken during a meeting in which all the heads of the Associations representing the trade and industry took part and conveyed their displeasure regarding the budget.
Gupta further stated that the budget presented in the Assembly is anti-traders/industries, which has created chaos and confusion among the traders fraternity and forced them to take this harsh step of going on agitation.
Gupta said that before calling for any such steps which would be detrimental to the tourism and the economy of State CCI has invited the Finance Minister for an open debate as to why the Government has behaved like a dictatorship and not as a democracy which will not only render most of the people in business community bankrupt but also result in unemployment of lakhs of youths in the State.
He also warned the Government not to play with the future of traders otherwise CCI will act as opposition for it. He also took dig over 25 MLAs of BJP, who maintained silence over the budget and acted as mute spectator.
“While discussing the pre-budget memorandum submitted to the Finance Minister and deliberating upon, it was felt that the pre-budget meeting was a meager formality, eyewash and to befool the traders fraternity as all the genuine demands of CCI which were well taken and agreed upon by the Finance Minister found almost no place in the budget”, he added.
Projecting demands, Gupta said that CCI demanded VAT on Shawls, exemption of VAT on anti cancer drugs, benefits to the tourism/service industry as per the definition of the industry, reduction of tax on automobiles in CSD, reduction in highest rates of tax on Beedi and Cigarette, reduction of tax on desi ghee, uniformity of tax on dry fruits other than exempted, uniformity of tax on shoes, amnesty on GST recoveries, exemption of toll tax on import of fresh fruits and vegetables, exemption of entry tax on machinery used by stone crushing industry, VAT on TIN foil with retrospective effect since 2011-2012 , double taxation of service tax on MES contractors and deletion of mustered oil industry from the negative list.
All the demands were well explained and agreed upon by the Finance Minister but the CCI is surprised that these genuine demands have not met justice in the budget, he alleged.
He also expressed anguish over the taxation on nursing homes which is not applicable elsewhere in the country and also taxation on sports services.
We would like to make it clear to the Government that if our genuine legitimate demands are not redressed and if the people adversely effected by the flash flood last year were not rehabilitated we shall have no option but to take the course of agitation at the State level against the coalition Government in next two days, he added.
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