Traders Observe 12-Hour Bharat Bandh; Know Details

Bhubaneswar: Traders from over 40,000 trade associations are observing Bharat Bandh on Friday called by the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) protesting against arbitrary regulations and alterations in the Goods and Services Tax (GST) besides other issues.

The 12-hour bandh (from 6 am to 6 pm) is in protest against the “draconian, arbitrary and critical” changes made in GST rules recently, e-commerce giants’ alleged norm violations and the e-way bill system.

The CAIT urged the Centre to correct glitches in e-commerce for preventing law violations by foreign e-commerce firms.

“The Government claims GST as a simple taxation process, but there are a lot of complications in it. Till yet, the Government has made 950 amendments in the GST Act. But none of them is easing our work. We are not opposing the GST but we are against the amendments,” a protesting trader in Rourkela said.

The Odisha Byabasayee Mahasangha on Thursday extended its support to the bandh call. Around 20 lakh shops and business establishments have downed shutters on Friday.

Earlier on Thursday, the state government instructed all district administrations to take precautionary measures to avoid any untoward incident during the protest.

The All India Transport Welfare Association (AITWA) and associations of chartered accountants and tax advocates are apparently supporting the strike. The CAIT as well as AITWA sought scrapping of the new e-way bill or eradicating certain rules from it.

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