Chandigarh April 20 (Harbans singh)
Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring today warned against resorting to “tax terrorism” in Punjab by the Aam Aadmi Party government.
Warring, in a statement here today, alleged that the Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema has directed all the 250 ETOs of the GST wing of his department to carry out at least four raids each in one month.
He said, the ETOs have been asked to collect at least Rs 8 lakhs from each raid. This, he pointed out, means one thousand raids with Rs 80 crore penalty every month which comes to Rs 960 crores of penalty a year.
PCC president observed that the Punjab government, which was already at the verge of bankruptcy has now resorted to a novel way of robbing and looting the traders in the state with arm-twisting tactics. He observed that the Punjab government wants to pay Rs 1000 each to women and has now decided to take this money forcibly from the traders. “It is like robbing Peter to pay Paul”, he remarked.
He warned that the Congress will not let such intimidation of the traders at any cost. He said the traders were already being harassed and threatened by the gangsters with threats and extortion calls.
“As if that was not enough, now the government has come out with its own ways and means of extortion”, he remarked, while warning that such misadventure will destroy and devastate the trade in the state. He claimed the industry had already moved out of Punjab and now the GST raids will prove to be the last straw on the trade and industry’s back and ensure its collapse.
