Most markets in the state will remain closed on Friday in protest against rolling out of Goods and Services Tax (GST) hastily when traders are not prepared for the new tax regime.
The Federation of Traders' Organisation of Bengal has called for "no business" on Friday as a mark of protest against the Centre's decision to roll out GST from July 1.
This comes a day after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had lashed out at the Centre for rolling out GST from July 1 when the country is not completely prepared for it. She had stated that implementation of GST hastily is going to bring "super emergency" in the country and businessmen will have to suffer once again as they had faced the worst experience during demonetisation of high value notes.
Members of the organisation held a rally from Shyambazar five-point crossing to Hatibagan on Thursday evening protesting against the GST. Suvendu Ghosh, one of the secretaries in the state of the organisation, said: "We had discussions with traders' associations of different markets including Gariahat, New Market, Manicktala, Shyambazar and Baranagar markets. All of them will keep all shops closed on Friday."
"We had written to the Union Finance minister Arun Jaitley with our nine-point charter of demands in connection with GST. We had also stated that small and medium scale traders like us need some more time to prepare ourselves for the GST. But they (Centre) paid no heed to our demands and suggestions," said Ghosh adding that they have called for "no business" day on Friday when in the midnight, GST will be rolled out. The organisation will be intensifying its protest against the "autonomous" decision for which traders are going to land in a deep trouble. There are 400 committees of traders under the organisation that has called for "no business" on Friday. All the committees will be supporting it and at the same time, many other traders' organisations in the state have extended their support in favour of keeping their shops and markets closed on Friday.
Moreover, there are apprehensions over availability of all kinds of medicines after the rolling out of GST. According to many owners of medicine shops, they are yet to register for GST and without getting registered, it would not be possible for them to carry on with their business.
They have criticised the Centre for implementing it hastily as the registration had started from June 25 and it was not possible to complete the registration process in such a short time period.