Jalandhar: Sports Industry Association condemns state government for ‘inspector raj’
Jalandhar: Members of the Khel Udyog Sangh held a meeting today and condemned the government’s decision to give the right to check products to GST inspectors. Senior city trader Ravinder Dhir said the government has issued orders under which any inspector of the GST department can check the product on the road. He said this is happening for the first time. Earlier the enforcement branch was entrusted with the task of checking products. Now this will increase corruption manifold. He said it is becoming difficult for industrialists to work under this government. Traders have been protesting against GST raids for the last two years. We are being harassed, the association members said.
AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal had promised that inspector raj would be abolished if his party came to power. The party is now ruling the state. But instead of ending inspector raj, the government has worsened the condition of traders and industrialists. This is not the first time that the association members have condemned the government. Last year, a group of traders and industrialists had protested during the ongoing inspection by the GST team. A team of the GST department had carried out an inspection at a sports shop in Basti No. 9, following which some traders and industrialists gathered at the spot and staged a sit-in outside the unit during the inspection. The same year, under the banner of the Sports Industry Association, members had staged a sit-in protest on the road, reiterating their demand to put an end to such GST raids. Praveen Anand, a member of the association, said that this is not a conducive environment for industrialists. “Punjab’s industry is sinking due to policies rather than growth,” he said.
