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Report by OD bureau; Bhubaneswar: A delegation of the Traders Cell of the BJP Odisha, led by the Convener Shri Umesh Khandelwal, today submitted a memorandum to his Excellency the Governor of Odisha for forwarding it to the President of India on the matter of various problems faced by traders and small businessmen.
The Traders Cell comprises of small and medium traders, small scale industries, cottage industries etc. and have representations in all the states of the country and constitute nearly 4 Crore people. The delegation also included Mahesh Mohanty, Jayanti Padhiary, Ghanshyam Agarwal, Gobind Agarwal and Anil Dhir.
The new laws being framed by the Central Government will be a hindrance in this existing set up. The Cell has appealed for not allowing Foreign Direct Investment In Retail. India, with a population of 122 crores is now the biggest market in the world, and is being specifically targeted by multinationals. The USA is pressurizing the Central Government to open up the investment in the retail sector, and tragically the Centre is succumbing to the pressure. If FDI in retail is allowed, the retail sector of India will fold up. The consumers and producers too will be affected as these companies will neither give cheap goods, nor will the farmers benefit.
The Food Security Bill 2006 will also create a lot of difficulties as it has been framed on the lines of European and other developed countries, which is impossible to replicate in India. India is a rural country of villages where 40% of the populace is below the poverty line. The small trader is not highly educated, nor is he aware of the law or the enforcement process. There needs to be many modifications in the Bill. A new law should be affected after necessary changes in its present form; this law is not possible to be enforced.
A roadside vendor will never be able to pay Rs 1 lac fine, as his daily income is only Rs 100/-. We request you to instruct the Central government to re-consider the bill and constitute a committee to rethink and redraft in which there should be representation from the trader community too.
In the matter of the Goods & Service Tax, the traders are law abiding citizens who want to pay maximum tax to the Central and state governments. It is the duty of every citizen to pay taxes, inasmuch as the state to levy taxes. The relationship should be symbiotic, just as the bee collects nectar from the flowers without doing any harm.
The GST is totally away from this dictum. It is a fact that the lower the rate of tax, the collection will be the most. Under GST a trader shall have to take three licenses, and he shall have to pay at multi levels. The traders cell suggest that one point tax should be collected by the State governments and proportionately remitted to the centre. The traders should not have to face these problems.
The Traders Cell have asked for a total ban on Future Trading as it is not a trade but pure gambling. In this neither the farmers for the consumers are being benefited, only hoarding and market manipulations are being done and a select few profit from it.
The BJP has been organizing a nationwide campaign for the Traders which will culminate on the 23rd August at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi. There will be a protest march to Parliament which will include the National Convener of the Traders Cell Shri Shyam Behari Mishra and Party President Nitin Gadkari, senior leaders like L.K.Advani, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley .
A delegation of 100 traders shall accompany the Odisha State Convenor Shri Umesh Khandelwal to the 23rd August protest march and dharma.
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