TURA, Dec 1: The Meghalaya Chamber of Commerce from Tura has sought the immediate repeal of the GHADC (Trading by Non-Tribals) Tenth Amendment Regulation Bill 2020 alleging it to be illegal as well as unfair to traders belonging to the non-tribal community.
In their representation to GHADC CEM Benedic R Marak, the traders’ body alleged various irregularities in the passing of the said bill as well as in the subsequent collection of amounts from the non-tribal traders by Taxation officials.
“Cash amount is being collected from the traders just by showing the new regulation papers without the consent of the Governor. How can this happen? Everybody knows that without the consent of the Governor, the bill cannot be enacted,” President of the traders’ body, Wilver Greham Danggo said.
Danggo also pointed out that the new rates as mentioned in the fresh regulation were also too high as compared to earlier rates.
“A particular amount which was earlier Rs 3000 has been replaced with an enhanced figure of Rs 10,000. Besides, we are aware that the bill was passed just recently but the new quoted amount was taken from non-tribal traders while they were renewing their TNT licenses in March 2021,” he added.
Cautioning that the local people would be the ones to suffer due to rising prices if such hefty amounts are taken from non-tribal traders during renewal of licenses, Danggo urged that the new TNT Bill is immediately scrapped.