Meeting of Ludhiana District Unit of Punjab Pradesh Beopar Mandal held

Ludhiana, June 30, 2019: A meeting of Ludhiana District Unit of Punjab Pradesh Beopar Mandal held here today. It was presided over by mandal’s state general secretary Sunil Mehra, district president Arvinder Singh Makkar, chairman Pawan Lahar and district vice president Harkesh Mittal. The working committee members participated in large numbers. The DCC Ludhiana president Ashwani Sharma specially attended the meeting.
Addressing the meeting, Sunil Mehra strongly opposed a special tax imposed on professionals by the state government. He warned to intensify the agitation if this tax was not withdrawn. He further said that on one hand the traders were suffering from problems arising after implementation of GST and on the other hand old VAT cases were being dig out. He demanded release of payments of pending VAT refunds and opined that errors in GST were due to corrupt bureaucracy.
Mehra also condemned the Punjab Government for hiking power tariff. He said on the other hand, the state government was providing power free of cost to the agricultural sector. He said free power should be given only to the farmers living below the poverty line.
Further, Mehra urged upon the state government to constitute a Traders’ Board for redressal of problems of the traders. He sought pension to traders after age of 58 years.
Mehra also stated that a sammelan of traders was to be held in Delhi on August 9. A sammelan of traders would also be held in Amritsar in last week of August.
In his address, Arvinder Singh Makkar categorically stated that mandal would not support traders indulging into malpractices to save taxes. He also regretted that law and order situation in Punjab was not good. He said the increased power tariff was badly hitting backbone of traders.
In his address, Harkesh Mittal said ecommerce was badly affecting the retailers doing their businesses in traditional manners. He urged upon the government to make a concrete policy after taking into confidence traders. He said the traders were passing through a very critical juncture and they were preferring to settle down their children abroad instead of India.
Another leader of the mandal, Pawan Lahar, also expressed his annoyance over rising power tariff in Punjab. He also sought simplification of GST. He said pro-traders political party could only rule in the country.
Another traders’ leader, Banwari Harjai, asked traders to get united to press upon the government to accede to their demands.
Harsh Thapar and Pawan Malhotra demanded strict action against those who were bent upon to create law and order problem in the state.
DCC Ludhiana president Ashwani Sharma assured that he would make every possible effort to get resolve problems of traders’ community at the government level. He assured to get arrange a meeting of traders with Punjab chief minister. He assured to support every action of traders.
Among others, Chander Shekhar Monga, Ashwani Mahajan, Deputy Kapoor, Vimal Harjai, Ramesh Kapoor, Atul Kapoor, Sanjiv Kundra, Amrit Bajaj, Jiwan Mehra,Prem Jain, Rohit Kapoor, Ramesh Mahajan, Harsh Thapar, Ranjit Singh, Ravi Dhawan, Vivek Tandan and others were present.