![President Neeraj Anand and other office bearers of Chamber of Traders Federation in a meeting on Thursday. President Neeraj Anand and other office bearers of Chamber of Traders Federation in a meeting on Thursday.](https://cdndailyexcelsior.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/page3-216.jpg)
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, July 21: Chamber of Traders Federation (CTF) Jammu, has appealed the State Finance Minister to defer the VAT payment and VAT returns of first quarter and club the same in the second quarter keeping in view the prevailing conditions in the State.
The demand was raised in an emergency meeting of the Federation held under the chairmanship of its president Neeraj Anand, wherein all the office bearers and prominent members expressed deep anguish and pain on the non-stop mayhem, loss of lives of Kashmiris, diabolical plans of separatists and their master engaged in manipulations from across the border. They also expressed their dissatisfaction on the administrative chaos in the Valley.
Federation president lamented that while political parties of different hues become steadily mute on such occasions and media is held captive by the circumstantial compulsions, the responsibility to improve the situation is best left to the good offices of civil society and above all the trading community, and rightly so they have risen to the occasion and responded well by doing their best to maintain peace and communal harmony in the region.
Invoking the sensibilities of the youth under pressure I the valley and sensitiveness of the Government functionaries both at the State and Central level, Mr Anand called upon them to spare no efforts in bringing normalcy in Kashmir at the earliest.
“Needless to say that our State lagging in the industrialization depends largely on various pilgrim tourists like those of Mata Vaishno Devi, Budha Amarnath, Machail Mata and Shiv Khori shrines at this time of the year. We sincerely wish that the regular feature of disturbing Amarnath Ji Yatra for the last few seasons shall end in the near future”, said Mr Anand.
He said Jammu traders were suffering huge losses due to non-transaction with the Valley traders. Narwal Fruit Mandi traders dealing in perishable items like banana and vegetables have suffered heavy losses running in to crores of rupees and this loss was likely to go up even further if the situation did not improve soon. Similarly, he added, the payments coming from the valley to dealers of Motor Vehicles and essential commodities have totally been stopped due to closure of Banks in Kashmir and snapping of Internet services in the State and we can hardly expect any improvement in next few days. Hence appeal for deferment of VAT payment and VAT returns.
Those present in the meeting included Kailash Nath Nagar, Dinesh Gupta, S Attar Singh, Chander Gulati, S Balwinder Singh, Vinay Gupta,Tushar Mahajan besides others.