Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT India) has sent an important communication to Chief Minister of Maharashtra to reconsider & amend the new Break The Chain order, which will cause tremendous hardships & huge financial loss to lakhs of small traders in the state. Relevant Text of the letter is as follows:-
Subject : Lockdown in Maharashtra
In the wake of steep rising cases of COVID in the State of Maharashtra here is no doubt that citizens should be protected from corona virus. But the most pertinent question arises whether total lockdown of trade and business is the only and practical solution to curb increasing cases of Covid pandemic.
It is important to note that the month of April is always remain crucial and critical for the traders everyyear. It is to be noted that before 20th April payment of GST is to be made and failure of the same will attract late fee, penalty and interest. 3 I st march has just ended. Books of accounts are required to be dosed. Final dosing entries are to be passed. Where ever required tax has to be deducted and deposited in govt treasury. If this not done timely, then again interest and penalty is attracted. For renewal of bank limits, the Balance sheet of last financial year ended on 31st March has to be submitted. If not submitted, penal interest is charged. The Banks will began the process to the extent of dropping down the limit to nil and the bank account is liable to be freeze. The said account can become NPA and the Bank may auction the securities for recovery of its outstanding amount. It is to be further noted that the assessments under VAT and Income tax, Service tax are under finalization state. In the scenario when shops and offices are closed, how the traders will be able to comply with the same.
It is also to be noted that every year April is the month of beginning of first spell of festive season which in-dudes Vikramaditya -new year beginning followed by NavRatri, RamNavmi, Chettichand, Mahavir Jayanti, Hanuman Jayanti which are celebrated with big fan fare across the Country and brings much business op- portunities etc for the business community. As per old belief, several persons generallytake delivery ofwhite goods and automobiles on Vikramditya New year day. Such people have already booked the goods with delivery schedule for the month of April. Further, after a great long span of time, the traders were expecting bumper business during forthcoming marriage season beginning from 22nd April. The current lockdown will force the traders to keep the stocks in godown and since rainy season will be followed by current summer season, all such material stocked in godown, shops and warehouses will either get expired or will be deteriorated which in turn will be a huge loss to the traders. It is also to be noted that Automobile shops also have always attached with their respective workshop. Workshop has to be kept open to provide services to Ambulance, water supply vehicles, goods vehicles, buses etc- and any lockdown will also affect adversely on such services. The factories are in industrial areas. Offices are in city areas. Since offices are being asked to keep dosed how e way bill, tax invoice and accounting will be done. The Cheque books are kept in office. With private offices being asked to keep dosed , how payments will be done.
All official correspondence are generally done from office. With office closed, how will compliance be done.
We would like to mention that merely closing down the shops is not the real remedy to check rising cases of Corona. All other establishments and services of public dealing should also be needed to close. There should not be any movement of any type across the State. But such closure will hit badly the economy. We propose that instead of closure of shops it is requested that shop timings may be reduced to 11 am to S pm and in cooperation with trade associations, effective measures should be taken to ensure that Covid safety protocols are fully observed by one and all. The entry and exit points of the markets should be regulated.
We propose to a meeting with your good self with prominent trade leaders of every District of the State to explore the possibilities of mutual cooperation between trade associations and the Government of Maharashtra to deal the COVID in an effective way and on the other hand keep running the economy of the states and wider usage of sanitizers for cleaning the houses and the markets.
