Traders continued their stir against imposition of 4 per cent Value Added Tax (VAT) on textiles here on Tuesday.
Members of the Cloth Merchants Association took out a rally from Vastralatha in One Town to the Sub-Collector's office to protest against the VAT. The rally passed through Police Control Room, Bandar Road and culminated at the Sub-Collector's office. Later, they submitted memoranda at district Collector camp office and at the Sub-Collector's office.
In another programme, Textile Merchants Welfare Association (TMWA) members also submitted a memorandum to the district Collector. Speaking to media separately, they said that Kamalapathi Tripathi Committee in 1957 recommended that sales tax be not imposed on textiles. Instead, the committee said, additional excise duty should be collected from cloth merchants. The Central government, recently, had done away with 1 per cent additional excise duty. Subsequently, the state government imposed 4 per cent VAT. The government decision was not justified and unlawful.
The textile merchants would continue their protest until the government withdrew the VAT, they said.
TMWA president P. Bhima Rao and its members, AP Federation of Textiles Association incharge president B. Venkata Narasimha Rao, VAT Action Committee members BJP Srinivas, and Cloth Merchants Association President A. Prakasa Rao were present.
