Lashing out at the Aam Aadmi Party led State Government for resorting to “tax terrorism” in the state, Punjab Congress president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring on Tuesday asked the Government to “enforce the law, but don’t terrorize the traders”.
“While there are serious charges against the Government about its complicity in massive liquor scam, it is venting its ire on small-time businessmen and traders through its taxation officials,” said Warring while reacting to the statewide raids being conducted by the Taxation Department across Punjab.
Warring questioned the very purpose of such raids saying that in case, the GST officials have any doubts or need any information, they can simply summon and call the particular traders and businessmen to their offices to explain their position.
“In case they are not satisfied they can further investigate by visiting the business premises,” he said, while asking, “why create an atmosphere of fear and terror by descending with a posse of officials as if you are raiding some terrorist hideout”.
The state Congress president said that it was for the first time that the taxation officials had raided small-time business establishments like ‘kiryana and crockery’ shops. “It is surprising as what the Government was trying to convey and get out of such raids, which are not going to yield anything…This only shows the frustration of the government which has pushed the State to bankruptcy and was now trying to harass small shopkeepers,” he observed.
Warring pointed out, while the government was letting off the big fish like big liquor barons, “with active connivance and complicity”, it had started harassing and terrorizing small traders and businessmen. “The trading community is already facing a lot of harassment and hardship due to the ill-implemented GST regime and now the raids by the State Government officials were further adding to their hardships,” he added.