Jakhar asks govt to listen to industry on e-trip
Monday, 29/07/2013
http://www.punjabnewsline.com/punjab/will-manpreet-bite-the-bait-badal-has-thrown-at-himij/83651
CHANDIGARH: Leader of the Opposition in the Punjab assembly Sunil Jakhar today asked the Punjab government to talk to and listen to the issues and concerns raised by the trade and industry in Punjab on the issue of e-trip.
He regretted that the Punjab government had shut its door on industry and was bent upon going ahead with its decision without appreciating and addressing the concerns of the trade and industrial federations and associations.
In a statement issued here today, Jakhar wondered as how the government could go ahead with such an important decision when the industry has not been taken into confidence. He said it is too dictatorial and draconian for a government in a democracy to go ahead with these regulations without bothering as what the concerned and affected people think and feel about it. He also came down heavily on BJP for having failed to raise the concerns of the industry. He criticized the working of the boards which were set up to act as conduit between the government and trade and industry. Chairmen of these boards, BJP nominees, enjoy ministerial status putting burden on the state finances, but have failed to take up the issue with this government.
The CLP leader appreciated the concerns of the industry. He said the relationship between the government and the industry is mutual. “It cannot be a one sided affair that you go on slapping taxes on them without providing them any facilities and their genuine dues”, he remarked while referring to various long pending issues of the industry which the government has failed to address.
He pointed out, while the government seems to go with the assumption that all the traders and industrialists are thieves and do not deserve to be heard and only deserve to be subjected to summary trial, it has failed in its duties towards the industry. He said VAT refunds of the industrialists were pending for a long time. Similarly they were not getting even enough power to run their industrial units while government is slapping one tax after another.
Jakhar said he understood the desperation of a government which is on the verge of bankruptcy. “But such steps will not generate any revenue rather it will lead to decline in revenue as industry may have no option but to close down”, he warned.
