A two-day strike has been launched in Mumbai by wholesalers, in order to protest against the pending Local Body Tax (LBT) imbroglio. The strike has been launched as the government failed to set up a high-level committee to examine the LBT issue.
The president of Federation of Associations of Maharashtra (FAM), Mohan Gurnani said, “Trading across sectors came to a standstill Monday morning with all wholesale markets remaining closed for two days”. The controversial LBT is an account-based cess collection for every raw material which is used or imported into the city by all businesses, manufacturers and traders.
The tax was implemented in most parts of the state of Maharashtra as of April 1, 2013 and is now due to be imposed on October 1, 2013 in Mumbai. The wholesale and retail trade strike crippled the state in June 2013, after which Chief Minister Prithviraj Chauhan and Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar intervened in order to solve the looming crisis.
In a meeting with traders, the state government had promised to set up a committee to examine LBT and make necessary recommendations. Gurnani said that traders accepted the proposal of the government and called off the strike in public interest on May 23, 2013.
