Cracker dealers up in arms against admn

Tribune News Service|
Ludhiana, October 26

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The wholesale dealers of crackers in the city are up in arms against the district administration and police for limiting the number of sites for sale of firecrackers on Diwali.

Perturbed over this, the cracker dealers held a protest at the Mini-Secretariat here on Friday and demanded that the number of sites be increased. 

They also said the Taxation Department was asking them to deposit Rs 60,000 for setting up stalls, which was “uncalled for” simply because all of them had GST numbers and payments can be made later to the department.

President of the Cracker Dealers Association here Pradeep Gupta said the district administration had given them a limited number of sites for the sale of firecrackers. “Though the Supreme Court has lifted the ban on the sale of firecrackers, the administration is still adamant on its stand. They are telling us that just 13 sites will be given and that too through draw of lots (lottery). We want them to allow us to put more stalls, but they refuse to listen to us. For the past many years, we are incurring huge losses because of ban on sale of firecrackers etc.,” said Gupta.

The dealers said, “The Taxation Department has asked us to first deposit Rs 60,000, but we all are having GST numbers, they can get the money later. These are the two issues which we want the administration to resolve for our benefit.”

It may be mentioned that a few years ago, the sale of firecrackers in the city touched around Rs 20-25 crore but this declined as children were made aware of celebrating green Diwali and ban was put on sale of firecrackers to combat pollution levels.