New Delhi: Commercial markets across the country will remain closed on Friday as part of the Bharat bandh called by traders’ bodies against the Goods and Service Tax (GST), the fuel price hike, and the E-way Bill.
The bandh was called by the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), the Indian traders’ body.
In a statement issued last week, the CAIT had said that over 8 crore traders from more than 40,000 trade associations across the country will participate in the ‘Bharat Vyapar Bandh’ to protest the “draconian, arbitrary and critical” amendments made recently to the GST rules. Traders are expected to stage dharnas at as many as 1,500 places across the nation.
According to Zee News, traders are demanding a review of the provisions of the GST regime.
The Federation of All India Vyapar Mandal (FAIVM), however, opposed the bandh call.
CAIT secretary-general Praveen Khandelwal had said on February 18 that the All India Transporters Welfare Association supports the Bharat Bandh call and will hold a ‘chakka jam‘ (road block) on February 26.
Khandelwal said that almost 950 amendments have been made so far to GST rules in the past four years and issues related to glitches in the GST portal and the continuous increase in compliance burden are the major lacunae in the tax regime.
The All India Transporters Welfare Association (AITWA), which is supporting the bandh call, has also urged the government to abolish the e-way bill, which regulates the movement of goods. To transport goods worth more than Rs 50,000 in a vehicle, a GST registered person or company needs to generate an e-way bill. The association has instead suggested that vehicles should be tracked by using Fastag connectivity. AITWA also wants the government to scrap the penalty on transporters for any time-based compliance target of transit and make diesel prices uniform across the country.