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As markets reopen, traders demand relief from UP govt
With the state government relaxing ‘corona curfew’ in all 75 districts of the state after over a month, various trader bodies are now demanding a relief package from the Uttar Pradesh government, claiming to have lost business worth over ₹90,000 crore in this period
With the state government relaxing ‘corona curfew’ in all 75 districts of the state after over a month, various trader bodies are now demanding a relief package from the Uttar Pradesh government, claiming to have lost business worth over ₹90,000 crore in this period.
President of Uttar Pradesh Adarsh Vyapar Mandal Sanjay Gupta said, “Today a trader is expected to pay commercial house tax, commercial power tariff, water, solid waste collection. Besides, even a small shop has to dole out taxes despite the pandemic. We want the government to waive off commercial charges and collect normal house tax, normal power bill. This will come as some sort of relief for the debt-ridden traders of the state.”
Trader leader of Uttar Pradesh Udyog Vyapar Mandal Amarnath Mishra said, “We have met chief minister Yogi Adityanath and deputy chief minister Dinesh Sharma and other ministers for waiver in power bill, house tax, water tax, besides giving relief in GST and income tax. The chief minister had praised the contribution of traders in the development of the state. The state government has a sympathetic attitude towards the problems of traders.”
The state government had imposed partial corona curfew from April 30 after spike in cases in the second wave of pandemic. However in Lucknow, traders had voluntarily started closing markets from April 14 which they claim to have led to losses worth ₹10,000 crore.
They are happy that all markets in the state will be opening from Wednesday as the number of active Covid cases have come below 600 in all the districts of state.
Speaking on the issue, Sandeep Bansal, president of All India Udyog Vyapar Mandal claimed that traders of the state capital had suffered the most. Most of the traders have taken loans and they have to pay it back so they need some sort of stimulus from the government.
The state saraffa market has recorded loss of around ₹40000 crore in state as marriages have been postponed, the cloth and textile business has lost ₹25000 crore, FMCG has lost ₹15000 crore business besides crores of business of construction material, electronics, automobiles, spare parts, beauty products, hospitality etc has been lost, he said.
“The state government must come out with a stimulus package for traders like they have done for big industries and street vendors,” Bansal said.
More than 40 lakh traders have been paying crores of rupees as GST to the government in the state and now it was the turn of the state government to give them some relief, said Bansal.
