Odisha traders stop import of food items – Protesting against high VAT Rates

Protest­ing against high VAT rates, over 2,200 whole­sale traders in Odisha have stopped import­ing puls­es and wheat prod­ucts from oth­er states begin­ning Tues­day for an indef­i­nite period.

They were agi­tat­ing under the ban­ner All Odisha Traders’ Asso­ci­a­tion (AOTA). The state’s main busi­ness point Mal­go­down in Cut­tack remained closed on Tuesday.

The traders’ body has been demand­ing for intro­duc­tion of a uni­tary tax sys­tem on food prod­ucts in the state instead of the 5% VAT levied on these items, which are exempt­ed in 23 oth­er states in the country.

Traders had been time and again com­plain­ing against the high VAT rate on food prod­ucts in Odisha, which they claimed had led to ram­pant black mar­ket­ing of these items by unscrupu­lous traders.

“As many as 23 states in the coun­try have no VAT on puls­es and food grains,” said AOTA gen­er­al sec­re­tary Sud­hakar Panda.

Cour­tesy: The Finan­cial Express