The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) is all set to launch a month-long mega national campaign “Vyapari Samvad” from 1 February to 28 February through which the CAIT will also conduct a survey on retail trade of India, said CAIT Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal.

“Amid Government’s move to roll out much-awaited e-commerce policy & National Retail Policy and rising complications in GST taxation system and various onslaughts from several quarters by the traders of the country, we have decided to launch the campaign,” said Khandelwal.

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The survey will be the largest survey of retail trade in terms of its potentiality and capacities, challenges faced by the traders, and suggestive remedial measures, claimed CAIT.

For the campaign “ Vyapari Sanvad“ the CAIT has identified about 1200 hundred cities in different states which will be visited by a special team formed by the CAIT which will reach general traders and will apprise them about the value of being a vote bank in the Country to seek redressal of grievances, Khandelwal added.

CAIT National President B C Bhartia said that during a month-long national campaign titled Vyapari Samvad, the CAIT will reach out to crores of traders through more than 40,000 trade associations all over the Country, and besides conducting an awakening among the traders, a kind of opinion poll shall also be held both in physical & digital manner about the need of speedy action on issues pertaining to e-commerce and GST and need of conversion of traders into a vote bank.

Bhartia further said that the current regime of GST regime has proved to be highly complicated much away from providing ease of doing business. Distortions and disparities in GST have become the order of the day.

“Filing of different kinds of return forms, variation in tax rates in different states, continues changes in GST Act & rules, accumulation of input tax credit due to higher tax on raw material and lower tax rate on the corresponding item, different rulings in different states on the same commodity, excessive & unchecked powers assigned to officials, irrational tax rates and various other tax-related issues has lowered down the traders to a “ Munshi” rather the traders who can focus on their business,” added Bhartia.

However, the CAIT is much against the tax evaders and in favour of giving exemplary punishment to them, he said.