Traders threaten to stop paying GST It seems you exist only for traders: SC

SEALING DRIVE Shopkeepers gather at Ramlila Maidan, say if they get no relief in next one week, they will hand over their shops’ keys to the government and shift business operations to other NCR cities

NEW DELHI: The city traders and shopkeepers have threatened to stop paying the Goods and Service Tax (GST) if the Central government fails to provide relief from the ongoing sealing drive.

On Wednesday, over 7,000 traders, their workers and family members gathered at Ramlila Maidan to protest against the sealing drive by t he Supreme Court-appointed monitoring committee.

Praveen Khandelwal, general secretary, Confederation of All India Traders, said if the state government doesn’t take cognisance of their sufferings, they will shift their business operations to cities in the National Capital Region (NCR).

“It’s high time; we want solution to this problem. We can’t constantly live under the threat of sealing. If the situation doesn’t improve in the next one week, we may take strong steps like discontinuing paying GST. We will hand over our shops’ keys to the government and shift business to NCR,” Khandelwal said on Wednesday.

The move will surely affect the Centre, which collects ₹180 crore every day and ₹5,416 crore every month as GST from Delhi’s traders, said Khandelwal.

Hitting out at the monitoring committee, traders said that its members are giving targets to the municipal corporation officials for sealing certain number of shops every day.

“They are acting like multinationals and giving task to 650 engineers in three MCDS for sealing certain number of shops every day, irrespective of the fact whether sealing is legal or illegal. If this continues, 25,000 shops will be sealed in the city in next one month,” said Khandelwal.

Shopkeepers said they were being denied benefit of fundamental provisions of Delhi Municipal Act, 1957.

“Moreover, the MCD officials are working like puppets, defying their own DMC Act and fail- NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court slammed the Delhi Development Authority on Wednesday for reducing conversion charges for traders to help them regularise their unauthorised usage of premises in markets and protect them from the sealing drive.

“People of Delhi are irrelevant. Only traders of Delhi are relevant. It seems you exist only for traders”, a bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta told the DDA counsel when the latter justified the reduction in charges on the ground that the traders were on strike.

“Traders come with jhanda (flag) and you grant relief. People can’t afford jhanda, so you don’t grant them relief”, the bench shot back. The lawyer came under more flak when he contended that the DDA was required to strike a balance.

An annoyed bench said : “Balance has to be struck in favour of people, not traders. Traders are also people, but balance should be in larger public interest.”

It asked for the monitoring committee’s view on the DDA’S move to bring down the conversion rates.

In some respite to those whose valuables are lying in lockers located in the basements that got sealed during the exercise, the bench allowed the monitoring committee to de-seal the premises for three months.

They will be de-sealed till June 2018, the court said adding “if any bank has any doubt about the legality or otherwise of the sealing, it may approach the monitoring committee within this period and take appropriate directions.” Basements with lockers that were not sealed too will remain operational till June 30.