By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, March 30, 2016 : The traders in Odisha on Wednesday announced to stop import of the commodities from April 1 with the high-level meeting between the Odisha government and representatives of Federation of All Odisha Traders’ Association (FAOTA) failing to decide on the latter’s demand seeking exemption of value added tax (VAT) on essential commodities.

FAOTA secretary, Sudhakar Panda told media persons that the government had been very rigid in its stand and in fact changed its views completely. “It’s not that we are rigid or adamant. Our demand is the demand of the four crore population of the state. It’s the demand for raising the revenue earnings of the state government. It’s the demand for doing business with pride and self-esteem. Out 29 states in the country, 24 levy no taxes on these items. Consumers of the state have been affected in this way ever since the implementation of the faulty taxation regime. During the March 26 discussions, the government had agreed to reduce VAT from the existing 5% to 1%. The government had agreed to discuss on wheat and wheat products in today’s meeting. But strangely enough, the government today changed its view completely and resorted to dilly dallying tactics. This is unacceptable to us.”

The state consumes about 67,000 metric ton (MT) of pulses and 12,000 MT of wheat products every month and a chunk of the consumption is imported from other states.

The traders’ body has been demanding imposition of unitary tax instead of 5% VAT on pulses, wheat and wheat products, sugar, rice and edible oil.

Finance Minister Pradip Amat and Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Minister Sanjay Das Burma have appealed to the traders to desist from their decision to stop the import of essential commodities. The Ministers said the next round of discussions on the issue will take place after the ongoing Assembly session.