TRIVANDRUM, 27 March 2005 — Prices of essential commodities are set to spiral in Kerala with the traders campaigning against implementation of value-added tax (VAT) refusing to take further stock of goods and beginning to picket the checkpoints.
The agitators are blocking the trucks at the checkpoints and checking where the loads are heading. They then approach the trader and warn against taking the stocks.
The wholesale traders stopped taking stocks from March 16 and the retailers last week. Finance Minister Vakkom Purushothaman has warned stern action against the VAT opponents pushing the prices of essentials.
Scarcity of vegetables and other perishable items was glaring in the local markets here. Arrival of rice from Andhra Pradesh, on which Kerala depends heavily for food grain needs, has come to a grinding halt. Reports said all essential commodities are short in supply.
Kerala Vyapari Vyavasayi Ekopana Samithy, the largest body of traders in Kerala, has asked its members not to take any more stocks of goods. They will close their shops for three days from March 30 and lay siege to the State Secretariat on April 1 when the southernmost state joins 22 other states implementing the new, simplified, tax system.
The traders say the new tax regime would put small traders into great difficulty. VAT system was not suitable for a consumer state like Kerala, they argue.
Though the government claims that the new system would help control prices of essential commodities, the strikers say it would be the other way round as the traders had to pay taxes at several stages on a particular item before handing it over to the consumer. The existence of Central Sales Tax, in addition to VAT and the abolition of minimum retail price would cause price hike.
CBI Abandons Nun Murder Case
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has decided to close down the investigation into the murder of a 21-year-old nun in a convent a decade back.
India’s premier investigating agency has twice informed the Kerala High Court of its inability to establish any lead in the investigations into the murder of Sister Abhaya in 1992.
Reports said the special investigation team received CBI director’s approval to file the final report in the High Court next month with the prolonged investigation leading nowhere.
