MADURAI: The Tamil Nadu Foodgrains Merchants Association Limited (TNFMAL) in Madurai has urged the need to drop dual price policy on commodities as it would largely affect small retail traders and only benefit wholesale traders who make bulk purchase of commodities at a lesser place.
SP Jeyapragasam, advisor, TNFMAL said on Saturday that it would not just affect food commodities, but the stakeholders across businesses. He also felt the need for implementing reforms in Goods and Service Tax (GST) to save sector. “When GST, the then Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley spoke of reforms once tax revenue crossed Rs1 lakh crore. But now, the GST revenue has surpassed Rs 1.70 crore. But no such tax reforms are being made,” Jeyapragasam said.
There have also been suggestions that the government could shift wholesale traders out of the town limits in all major cities like how it’s effective in New Mumbai, Yeshwanthpur in Bengaluru and Koyambedu in Chennai, to avoid congestions. Moreover, the TNFMAL also suggested the authorities employ adequate workforce for garbage removal in urban areas for proper maintenance of municipal solid waste management. Garbage has to be collected and disposed of, but many a time workers are not turning up to collect garbage and most of the residents neither bother to dispose of it properly, he said.