VAT refund backlog will be cleared within three to five months: Arvind Kejriwal to Traders
Promises to bring back industry that has gone out of Punjab due to poor policies of Badals
5 Dariya News (Ajay Pahwa)
Ludhiana 05-Jul-2016
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) National convener and Delhi Chief Minister, Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday assured to the traders and industrialists of Punjab that his party would attempt to clear the pending backlog of Value Added Tax (VAT) refund in the first three to five months of forming the government in the state. Kejriwal made the aforesaid comments while interacting with the traders and industrialists of Ludhiana Township, who came to share their problems pertaining to various hardships being faced by them in Punjab due to poor policies and rampant corruption in the Parkash Singh Badal led SAD-BJP regime in the state.Kejriwal said the AAP would also formulate a policy within one month in Punjab so that VAT could be refunded to the traders and the industrialists on time and its backlog did not pile up.Informing about the work, AAP government has done in Delhi during its one and a half year long tenure, Kejriwal said he took several new initiatives to simply the collection of VAT in the from the business community in the national capital."Similarly the AAP led Delhi government has rolled back VAT from 12.5% to just 5% on the request of the traders and industrialists on various commodities such as wood, marble, granite.
Sweets, footwear and clothes so that they could do business with ease ", said Kejriwal.He said the first thing AAP did immediately after coming to power in Delhi was stopping of the random raids on the business community by the VAT collection inspectors to curb Inspector Raj. "These raids were primarily conducted to get hefty bribes from the business community which we have completely stopped in Delhi".He said the way traders have turned up in large numbers it was quite apparent that they were not at all happy with the policies of the Badal government. Besides it also confirmed AAP was the only hope for the traders and the business community in Punjab.Kejriwal said he always believed that governments had no dearth of money of they had good intentions to provide people friendly governance. "Problem arises when the government like that of Badal start looting its own people by levying heavy taxes and bureaucracy indulges in large scale corruption".
AAP would put an end to Badal run family businesses
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal assured the traders that after coming to power AAP would probe the various business being run by Badals and their family members."In fact the Badals have taken over all the businesses in Punjab including transport, liquor, sand & gravel, cable network and hotels. We will get all these businesses freed from Badals' clutches and hand it over to the unemployed youth", said kejriwal.
Media complains to kejriwal of high handedness of Sukhbir Badal
Members of the Punjab media today complained to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind kejriwal that how Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal's stooges are openly threatening to the media not to do any anti-establishment stories. Kejriwal said there was no need to fear from Sukhbir Badal and his goons and the media should openly expose their misdeeds. "Don't worry about Badals they are any way going out in six months. We are also victims of Badal's high handedness as they have implicated our Delhi MLA Naresh Yadav in a false case of desecration. Once we come to power we will take back all false cases registered against the media or against any other community", addd Kejriwal.
Cops send hand written messages & flowers to Kejriwal
An Assistant Sub Inspector (ASI) of Punjab Police and a woman constable sent written messages to Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal assuring complete support to him. In their separate messages which Sangrur MP Bhagwant Mann read out from the stage, both ASI and woman cop asked Kejriwal to keep fighting against corruption and should also get the police free from Sukhbir Badal's hold.