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VAT-wary traders fire total shutdown salvo

By Rajesh Kumar, Section Business
Posted on Tue Apr 26, 2005 at 10:18:31 PM EST

KOLKATA: City traders are headed for a total shutdown on Friday. The decision was taken on Tuesday at a meeting of Joint Committee of West Bengal Trade Bodies.

The strike would extend from local grocery shops to malls. This decision comes despite the empowered committee on VAT, led by finance minister Asim Dasgupta, taking several steps to sort out the oddities in the new tax structure. Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, far from being disturbed by the shutdown threat, said he was pleased Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) had stood by him in implementing VAT. "CII has always been supportive of VAT. It will be of great help if CII reiterates its stand once again," said the chief minister at the annual general meeting of the CII eastern region on Tuesday.

"A small group of traders, who don't even understand what is VAT, are creating problems. We don't want any confrontation with them. My finance minister is in the middle of a meeting in Delhi at the moment. He rang me in the morning to say he was trying to sort out some of the problems. Everyone needs to take a common view on this issue," he said. CII national president Sunil Munjal obliged the chief minister by saying, "VAT is helpful for everyone. That is the single largest tax reform measure we have had since independence. I hope other states join the VAT regime soon." The chief minister might have CII by his side but not his Left Front partner --CPI.

CPI state secretary Manju Majumdar on Tuesday gave a political turn to the VAT debate by urging a "further scrutiny" of the new tax regime. In fact, the CPI will organise a seminar in the city on VAT soon. "It's true that finance minister Asim Dasgupta has been repeatedly saying VAT will bring down prices in general. But, there are others like former finance minister Ashok Mitra who fear the new system will marginalise small manufacturers and traders. I wrote to the CPM state secretary to clarify the matter but he has not responded as yet," Majumdar said.

This didn't make much difference to party mandarins at Alimuddin Street. "Efforts are on to resolve the problems. We have been holding discussions on this issue for the last three years. You don't always have to organise a seminar to undertake a scrutiny. Take for instance the ongoing trade strike; does it have any impact? The lack of public response to the strike is an indication of how people have reacted to the new regime. Nonetheless, we will re-examine the new tax system after a year," said Biswas.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1089713.cms

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