Date:19/01/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/01/19/stories/2006011914240400.htm

New Delhi

`Traders being victimised'

Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI: Claiming that nine months of the Value Added Tax regime in the Capital have, contrary to expectations, overburdened the trading community with huge paper-work by way of monthly assessments, unnecessary documentation, difficulties in procuring registration refund and several other roadblocks in filing their returns, the All India Tax Advocates Forum has demanded immediate measures to streamline its implementation.

Forum president M.K. Gandhi lamented that the trading community that contributes the bulk of the revenue to the Delhi Government is being victimised by the officials who work in an arbitrary manner.

"The excessive powers vested with the VAT Commissioner have for the last several months also led to arbitrary decisions leading to huge bogus demands," he charged.

As against the promised self-regulating mechanism, he said, even the small traders belonging to composition class of dealers were finding it difficult to meet with the demands of the VAT authorities and this had forced them to seek professional back-up even for meagre returns leading to unavoidable burden of over-heads and excessive expenses to file their returns.

Demanding an immediate review of the implementation of the VAT regime, Mr. Gandhi called for a system of checks and balances to save the traders from the whims and fancies of the officials and clerks.