Amritsar merchants’ union seeks local area restrictions on operations of retail giants
Says D-Mart, Blinkit & Reliance pose threat; demand tax cut under GST
Feeling threatened by retail giants like D-Mart, Metro, Reliance and other online retailers like Blinkit, the Amritsar Retail Karyana Merchant Union held a meeting on Wednesday to demand that their interests be safeguarded.
Punjab Karyana Retail Union president Omkar Goyal, advisor Sadhu Ram Devra, Preetam Singh, Buta Ram, Sandeep Gupta, Naval Kishore Aggarwal, Amit Arora, Gurdev Singh, Anil Kishore and other members were present at the meeting.
The union demanded that the trade for such companies be restricted to a limited area and the tax rate under the Composition Scheme of GST be reduced from the present one per cent to 0.25 per cent. Standard weight for edible oil should be fixed and production of polythene should be banned to discourage its use, said the union.
Additionally, the union demanded a provision to provide life insurance for karyana store owners and their workers to protect them in case of natural and man-made disasters and called for a Retailers’ Welfare Board to be set up with a local entrepreneur as its head.
The tax being paid by entrepreneurs should not be used for the free of cost schemes and strict action should be taken against those who issue threatening calls for extortion to traders, the union added.
