NEW DELHI: Aam Aadmi Party’s Durgesh Pathak claimed on Sunday that Bharatiya Janata Party-led municipal corporations had exploited traders by increasing the taxes during the pandemic and AAP had been highlighting this issue by running a signature campaign in all major markets of Delhi from July 1.
Pathak alleged that all three corporations were bringing new schemes to harass traders and even during Covid-19, taxes had been increased. Pathak said the signature campaign had been started in all 272 wards in the city.
The campaign started at Town Hall Bazaar, Chandni Chowk in the north corporation area and was led by its leader of opposition, Vikas Goel. In east Delhi, the campaign started at Gandhinagar Market and was led by leader of opposition Manoj Tyagi, and in the south corporation areas, leader of opposition Prem Chauhan launched it from the Lajpat Nagar market.
He said AAP was advising BJP to take back the increased taxes or a movement from streets to Parliament would follow. He claimed the campaign had got widespread support from traders across Delhi. He said all party MLAs and councillors were participating in it.
Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said that though AAP might be trying to politically provoke traders, the latter knew that the increase in trade licence fees had come after over 10 years and the corporations were already reviewing it.
Referring to the recent inclusion of traders as entrepreneurs under MSME, Kapoor said, “We at BJP don’t do lip service for traders but do groundwork to benefit the trade.”
