MCD polls: CAIT sends demands to political parties, wants shops unsealed

With elections to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi around the corner, the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has issued a Traders’ Charter along with major traders’ organisations from all parts of Delhi. Copies of the charter have been sent to all the three major political parties in Delhi, reported News18 Hindi.

The traders have demanded that the parties’ election manifestos should not only take note of the issues they have raised but also contain a time-bound plan to address them.

According to State CAIT President Vipin Ahuja and State General Secretary Devraj Baweja, the Merchant Charter has pointed out that since 2006, Delhi's traders have suffered the most from shop sealing and vandalism, and that 10,000 stores have remained sealed for years. In order to find a long-term solution to this issue, CAIT has proposed that Delhi's traders be granted an amnesty programme with a deadline, much like the initiative to regularise the city's 1,700 illegal colonies, said the news report.

With this, while traders will receive relief from sealing, the Municipal Corporation will receive thousands of crores in money, said the report.

Delhi’s shopkeepers have paid thousands of crores of rupees in parking and conversion fees, but parking lots are yet to be built, it pointed out, adding that it is imperative that the corporation create enough parking spaces in the city. Moreover, Old Delhi ought to be free from parking and conversion fees because it is a Mughal era bazaar, the charter noted.

Ashish Grover and Satendra Wadhwa, who are also state general secretaries of CAIT, said that the corporation should make property tax assessed on commercial property reasonable. Taxes on signboards, cleaning, etc., ought to be eliminated for retailers and the trade licence process should be online and transparent, they added.

Many types of non-essential taxes are being taken from the traders by the corporation, the CAIT leaders said, noting that a joint high committee should be formed with the traders to review all such taxes so that the revenue of the corporation increases without any unnecessary burden on traders.

The corporation has failed to fulfill its responsibilities as mentioned in all the three master plans implemented for Delhi so far, the charter alleged. It is critical to pay special attention to provisions related to Master Plan 2041, so that action is taken in time, it added.