Punjab Pradesh Beopar Mandal gives one month ultimatum to Punjab CM to address traders’ problems

Amritsar, September 2, 2019: Punjab Pradesh Beopar Mandal (PPBM) president Piara Lal Seth has warned Punjab chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh to address all problems of traders of the state within next one month, otherwise, the entire traders' community of Punjab would be constrained to come on the roads as a mark of the protest. Addressing a meeting of the state executive here on Sunday, he added that the policies being adopted by the present state government were against the interests of the traders, therefore, he made a fervent appeal to the traders across Punjab to get united for lodging their protest against Capt Amarinder Singh Government. The today's meeting was largely attended by representatives from 17 districts across Punjab. In his address, Seth also expressed his concern over the increasing trend of online trading. He said the online trading and ecommerce was badly hitting the traditional methods of trading across the country. He also expressed his concern over the ongoing recession in the country. He said good signs were not visible due to faulty policies of the government. Speaking on the occasion, the PPBM general secretaries Sunil Mehra and Sameer Jain said that there prevailed uncertainty due to unclear economic policies of the government. The government policies were being changed on frequent basis, thus, creating a great confusion among the traders, they said, adding that more than one thousand changes had been made so far in GST. They said the wrong policies had even brought down GDP by 2 percent. It was also demanded to withdraw professional tax because at the time of implementation of GST it was announced that no new tax would be introduced. The meeting demanded among other things to announce a policy for online trading, Rs.10 lakh health policy for traders by Punjab Government, availability of power supply at the rate of Rs.5 per unit, keeping funds worth Rs.2500 for trade and industry in Punjab Budget, setting up of traders and industrial board in Punjab, setting up of trade and exhibition center in Amritsar, release of VAT refunds, special policy for textile and food processing, mining policy for Punjab and immediate start of work of Patti-Makhu Rail Link after acquiring land for the same. The meeting, among others, was attended by PPBM vice president Ranjan Aggarwal, cashier SK Wadhwa, BK Bajaj, District President Surinder Duggal, general secretary Anil Kapur, Rakesh Thukral, District Jalandhar president Parwinder Bahal, LR Sodhi, Arvinder Makkar, Parmod Gupta, OP Gupta, Varinder Ratan, Sunil Mahajan, Gaurav Gupta and Gursharan Singh. The PPBM state secretary Mohinder Aggarwal was also among those present.