Thiruvananthapuram: Even after finance minister T.M. Thomas Isaac releasing a list of 101 essential commodities whose prices have come down post Goods and Services Tax, confusion reigns in the market over tax rates and prices.
With the traders rejecting the minister's claim that the prices would come down, the government stepped in to initiate stringent action against erring traders, who jacked up prices using the GST cover on Tuesday. As many as 95 cases were registered against traders following the raids conducted by the food and civil supplies as well as legal metrology departments on Tuesday.
Cases of traders levying prices more than the maximum retail price were detected in all districts. The officials have detected cases of masking and changing the prices in packets, cheating the consumers by not recording the weight of commodities in the packets and such other anomalies have been detected. Directions have been given to rectify such cases.
The inspections would be intensified in the coming days. Tax officials too would inspect shops to unearth such cases.
The officials have taken action against hoteliers who levied excess price for bottled drinking water.
Food and civil supplies minister P. Thilothaman has directed district supply officers and legal metrology controllers to conduct raids at all the main centers in the State.
Meanwhile, traders rejected the claim that prices would come down and submitted a memorandum to the minister saying that prices would rise for most of the commodities post GST. But the taxes department said that there was no question of repealing the list of essentials released by the minister and also reiterated that the traders have not yet become familiar with the new taxation system.
This lack of familiarity is being cited as the main reason for the price rise.
Upload inflated bills on FB
Finance minister T.M.Thomas Isaac has warned of stringent action against traders levying excessive price under the cover of Goods and Services Tax. The minister said that the public could upload the bills of commodities on the Facebook page 'Post Bills Here'. If the complaints are genuine, the shops would be raided, the minister said.
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