Members of the Dindigul District Chamber of Commerce & Industry slammed the ‘test purchase’ system carried out by officials of the Commercial Taxes Department on retail shop owners here on Tuesday.
The protesters distributed pamphlets to grocery shops and other retail shop owners on West and East Car Streets and nearby areas to create awareness. They demanded the Union and State governments to relax the GST levied on goods.
Speaking to reporters, its president D. Kirubakaran said that retail shops are targeted and fines up to ₹20,000 stating impractical reasons when the officials check the issue of tax invoice or bills of supply.
“Imposing heavy fines on small grocery stores for not issuing a bill is not really practical since the customers here just buy items in smaller quantities. Investing to provide proper billing can be strenuous on small traders who operate on meagre margins,” he charged.
He also noted that the authorities had levied fine up to ₹50,000 to small traders since the invoices did not contain details of door number in the address. “How can such smaller mistakes attract such heavy fines?,” he said.
They also demanded to carry out the procedure for firms and on traders who have a turnover of ₹5 crore every year.
Mr. Kirubakaran said that they had planned to stage a similar protest in front of the Dindigul Corporation office as well as Chennai soon.
Its secretary S. Mohammed Gani, treasurer S, Nazeer Seth and others were present.
