The Indian traders’ body Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has announced that all commercial markets across the country will remain closed on February 26.
Nearly 40,000 trade associations, representing over 8 crore traders, have extended support to the Bharat Bandh call given by the CAIT. The CAIT said in a release that the traders will stage dharnas (protests) at as many as 1,500 places across the nation on February 26, demanding the Centre, state governments and the GST Council to keep in abeyance the “draconian” provisions of GST.
The `Bharat Vyapar Bandh` is being carried out to protest against some of the “draconian, arbitrary and critical” amendments made recently in GST rules according to CAIT.
CAIT Secretary-General Praveen Khandelwal said that the All India Transporters Welfare Association (AITWA) will also support CAIT’s Bharat Bandh call and hold a ‘Chakka Jam’ on February 26.
The AITWA has also urged the government to abolish E-Way Bill and track vehicles by using Fast-Tag connectivity to E-Invoice and to scrap the penalty on transporters for any time-based compliance target of transit and make diesel prices uniform across the country.
Bharatiya Udyog Vyapar Mandal Delhi General Secretary Rakesh Yadav said that almost 950 amendments have been made so far to GST rules in the past four years. He adding that the issues related to glitches in the GST portal and the continuous increase in compliance burden are the major lacunae in the tax regime.
