A meeting of merchants held under the auspices of Kerala Merchants’ Union here on Friday decided to discontinue the procedure of submitting a declaration as required by the Commercial Taxes Department for bringing merchandise from other States by road. The merchants will boycott the procedure from July 15. The new norm was introduced earlier this month.
Kerala Merchants’ Union representatives said complying with the new norm was not practical. The details of the goods have to be mentioned at the point of origin or the destination which meant the data on vehicles and drivers would have to be submitted along with purchase bill and other information.
Merchants are required to use the electronic mode for filing the documents. It was again not feasible as there are a number of merchants who operate from limited facilities sans computers. Such merchants will be forced to disclose the secret password and identification number allocated to them, leading to misuse by a third party.
While the planned boycott would mean disruption in arrival of commodities through road, the transport through air and railways would not be affected. But the merchants plan to extend the stir to those modes of operation too in the next phase of agitation,
A number of organisations in goods transport, textile business, food processing and small scale industries participated in the discussions held here, the merchants’ union representative said.
