Traders demand increase in tax slab up to Rs 2.5L

Aakanksha N Bhardwaj

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, January 13

After several fights, scores of meetings and plethora of requests, the one-time settlement (OTS) scheme for VAT dues was finally unveiled on Tuesday.

Ravinder Dhir, convener of the Khel Udyog Sangh, who had been going to Chandigarh and holding meetings with the ministers to convince them to release notification of the policy, said that it was a good step but he also demanded increase in the slab of tax from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 2.5 lakh so that it could benefit maximum number of traders and industrialists.

“With this policy the traders having tax demand of up to Rs 1 lakh will only have to pay 10 per cent of the tax demand and thus the policy is good for them. But those above it i.e. those who have tax demand above Rs 1 lakh will just be relieved from paying interest penalty, but will have to pay full tax,” he said adding that there is demand from the government that they increase the slab as above 90 per cent of the traders will get relief.

“It will definitely be beneficial for most of the traders, but those who have tax demand above Rs 1 lakh will not be benefited much,” he said.

Dhir also held a special event where he thanked MLA Rajinder Beri who was the only one to always visit along with the traders and put pressure on the government to unveil the policy.

The Industry Minister said that this scheme would resolve the long-pending issue of unavailability of C-forms and others raised by the industrialists in Punjab.

Arora also termed it as a ‘historic step’ to give much-needed relief to the industrialists. He said the scheme would benefit almost 10,000 small and medium scale businessmen of the Doaba region.