Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Jan 19: A joint delegation of different traders’ federations and associations from Jammu today met with Union Minister of State for Development of Northeastern Region, Dr Jitendra Singh at his official residence in New Delhi and submitted him a charter of demands.
The delegation was led by Rattan Lal Gupta, president, Traders Federation Ware House-Nehru Market, Jammu. During the two hour-long meeting, Deepak Gupta, general secretary, Traders Federation Ware House-Nehru Market apprised the MoS of burning demands of the trading community of Jammu.
Deepak Gupta urged Dr Jitendra to raise the limit of e-way bill from Rs 50,000 to 2 lakh at least. He also stressed for e-way bill exemption for local supply up to 10 Km. Stating that e-way billing is new to trading community, he said there should be no penalty for technical mistakes.
Alleging that traders have to face difficulties in filling the returns of GST at the end of every month, he requested the Minister that it should be replaced with the filling of returns of GST Quarterly and
Tax payment can be on monthly basis as by doing so the traders will be saved from extra spending on maintaining of records monthly. He also stressed on simplifying the return filling process.
The delegation also urged the MoS that the tax under GST should be levied @ 0.5 % for the traders whose annual turnover is between 40 Lakh to 1.5 Crore. The MoS was also requested to raise the limit of Income Tax exemption upto Rs 6 Lakh and fix 10% tax slab for annual income upto Rs 15 Lakh and 20% tax slab for annual income above Rs 15 lakh.
The traders also demanded that Lakhanpur Toll Tax be abolished and enquiry conducted into the functioning of Bharti Wall Mart, which have been flouting the norms of wholesale business by selling goods to the retailers with minimum billing of Rs 500.
The delegation members also demanded ownership rights for the shopkeepers at Ware House. To make the to and fro activities of traders from Jammu to New Delhi and vice-versa feasible, they demanded running of Shatabadi Express from Jammu to New Delhi and New Delhi to Jammu and a direct morning flight from Jammu to New Delhi.
They also demanded completion of various tourism related projects started way back in Jammu, in a time bound manner.
Responding to the demands of delegation, Dr Jitendra Singh assured the traders that their demands would be looked into and he will ensure that necessary action would be taken by the concerned departments.
Yashpal Gupta (president, Retailers Federation of India), Anoop Mittal (president, Kanak Mandi Traders Association), Surinder Mahajan (president, Raghunath Bazar Businessmen Association), Rajesh Bagotra (president, Sugar Association) and many other trade leaders were part of the delegation.
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