8th May, 2013

CAIT sought immediate intervention of Urban Development Minister Kamalnath in LBT issue
    Maharashtra traders will divert their agitation to New Delhi, if not heard

The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) today said the indefinite strike called by Maharashtra traders over imposition of Local Body Tax (LBT) will further worsen the situation in Maharashtra. Therefore, the apex trader's body today sought an immediate intervention by Union Urban Development Minister  Mr Kamal Nath  to resolve this burning issue by addressing the trading community's woes in this context. The CAIT has threatened that if no immediate steps are taken, the traders of Maharashtra will stage Dharna and protests at Jantar Mantar at New Delhi and the traders of the rest of the Country will join their Maharashtra traders. 

"The non-cognizance of the state government on this serious matter, which has disrupted normal life in Maharashtra, has prompted the CAIT to make a call to Finance Minister urging for his immediate intervention"-said CAIT National President Mr. B. C. Bhartia today.

Since more than two months when the Maharashtra government announced its decision to implement the LBT from October this year, traders in the state have been protesting against the move stating that it will hurt their businesses badly.

Today, traders in the state called for an indefinite strike over imposition of a LBT, bringing the business operations to a grinding halt.

All business establishments remained closed in India's financial capital. The CAIT has condemned the arrest of its Maharashtra Chapter Vice President and President of Federation of Retail Dealers of Maharashtra and other trade leaders today at Mumbai.

The LBT will replace the traditional octroi and is an account-based cess collection for every raw-material used or imported into the city's limits by all businesses, traders and manufacturers. In the newly-introduced local body tax, a lump sum amount has to be paid by traders or manufacturers or owner of goods within the specified period.

While demanding immediate intervention of the Union Urban Development Minister in the matter, CAIT Secretary General Mr. Praveen Khandelwal said, LBT runs counter to the basic fundamentals of current VAT taxation regime and proposed GST.

"Under the proposed system, the traders will  have to keep record of all such entries and will have to file a return with the Local Self Government of the concerned city. This will lead to extra paper work whereas the traders are already subject to comply with large number of paper formalities under different Acts, Laws, Rules and Regulations," he said.

The Confederation said with this proposal one more rule has been imposed on the traders which will lead to further harassment and victimization of the traders at the hands of officials. No doubt, LBT will earn more revenue than the current system. 

"Once the new system will be implemented in Maharashtra, we are afraid that other states will also adopt it without wasting any time, which will prove to be devastating for the traders", CAIT National Convener Adarsh Gupta said.

Further, it said, initially different political parties including State BJP, Shiv Sena and MNS were not in favour of the LBT implementation, but now they have been supporting the traders. The recent addition in this line is NCP, an ally of UPA Government.

"It is informed that all Congress MPs of Maharashtra are scheduled to meet UPA Chairperson Smt. Sonia Gandhi today to brief her about the grave issue and demanding immediate redressal of the problem," it said.

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