Haryana does away with market fee for small traders

Parveen Arora

Tribune News Service

Kurukshetra, March 26

Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar today announced abolition of market fee for small traders with an annual turnover of up to Rs 5 lakh and promised district-level traders’ advisory committees to address their grievances. He said maximum tax-paying traders would be honoured.

Chairing the “Veopari Sammelan” here, Khattar promised to fix the collector rate of immovable property according to the market rate. “We have decided to fix the collector rate of immovable property equal to the market rate. This will come into effect from April 1,” the CM said.

He said the Deputy Excise and Taxation Commissioner would be competent to allow VAT/CST refund up to Rs 25 lakh whereas Additional Excise and Taxation Commissioner or other officers at the headquarters had powers to allow refund of over Rs 25 lakh.

“We have principally agreed to provide insurance cover to traders,” the CM said. Lauding their contribution to Haryana’s economy, Khattar said of the total Rs 1 lakh crore budget, Rs 50,000 crore was from revenue receipts and Rs 25,000 crore from VAT and CST contributed by the traders.

Urging the traders to install CCTVs at their establishments, Khattar said one lakh CCTV cameras would be installed at public places by market panels and local bodies. 

Finance Minister Capt Abhimanyu , Education Minister Ram Bilas Sharma, Urban Local Bodies Minister Kavita Jain, Minister of State for Food and Supplies Karan Dev Kamboj, state BJP president Subhash Barala, Gopal Sharan Garg, chairman, Veopari Kalyan Board (Traders Welfare Board) and  traders’ leaders Bajrang Das Garg and SK Jain spoke.