Traders call UP Bandh on Sept 11 over implementation of VAT regime

Lucknow, Aug 29(UNI) After their success in preventing entry of Reliance in the retail sector in the state, Uttar Pradesh Udyog Vyapar Pratinidhi Mandal, a trader organisation affiliated to the opposition Samajwadi Party, today announced a ' UP bandh' on September 11 in protest against implementation of Value Added Tax(VAT) regime in the state.

The organisation opposing implementation of the VAT, said that they will not accept the new tax regime in the present form which they termed as ''anti-trader.'' Mandal leader Laxmi Narayan Agarwal told mediapersons here that the government should implement the new VAT syssem for those traders whose annual business was over Rs 15 lakh. At present the government has proposed to bring all the traders whose business stood at Rs five lakh yearly under the new regime, probably to be implemented in a phase manner from October 1 next.

'' The new VAT system will only bring corruption and harrassment for the traders while the revenue of the government will dip and the consumers have to pay more for their purchase'', Mr Agarwal claimed.

The organisation will hold several state wide agitational programme in the first week of September with organising a total state bandh on September 11.

Earlier the activists of the same trader group led by its president and SP MP Banwari Lal Kanchal held a violent protest in Lucknow and Varanasi on August 22 against the retail chains which forced the Mayawati government to order closure of all Reliance Fresh outlets in the state over law and order problem.

Meanwhile the UP government is preparing itself for the implementation of the VAT system in the state from October 1. The government had already distributed draft proposal of the system and invited objections by August 31. The policy will be finally drafted by mid-September so that it can be implemented in a phase manner from October, an official sources confirmed.

UNI