E-trip a draconian law to hound traders, says Bajwa
Saturday, 27/07/2013
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2013/20130727/punjab.htm#8
Jalandhar: Opposing the e-trip system on trade, the Congress today accused the Punjab Government of hounding the state's business community with "draconian" laws.
Stating this while addressing a gathering as part of the party's mass contact programme, Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) president Partap Singh Bajwa said, "The SAD-BJP government was allegedly bringing deceptive ideas for harassing traders rather than rationalising the tax regime and taking austerity measures to manage the state's bad economy."
The Punjab Government has brought cotton, mustard, plywood, iron and steel (excluding scrap), yarn and vegetable oil (edible and non-edible) under the e-trip system to check tax evasion.
The PPCC president also took a dig at the BJP while accusing it of failing to safeguard the interests of the trade and industry and alleged that the BJP ministers in the government supported tax on urban properties, an exorbitant hike in power tariff and hefty fees imposed on regularisation of illegal colonies.
"BJP ministers were compromising with public interest for their self gains and the notification for e-trip system was issued without consulting traders," Bajwa said.
He said it would put an extra burden of over Rs 3,000 crore on the businessmen at a time when most of the industry and big business houses were shifting base to other states due to an "atmosphere of hostility" in Punjab.
Claiming that no Illegal colonies existed in the state, he demanded a high-level probe by a sitting Punjab and Haryana High Court Judge to find out as to who was behind the mushrooming of such settlements in the last one decade.
"Lakhs of people have settled in 5,500 colonies, which have suddenly been pronounced Illegal by the state government. They have paid taxes and most of them have already got their building plans sanctioned from the civic authorities concerned. This burden is like imposition of "jazia" on people," he added.
Ludhiana: Punjab traders on Friday held a massive protest here and warned that they would go on an indefinite fast from August 1 if the "anti-tax evasion" measure was not rolled back.
