BATHINDA, Nov 24: Punjab Pradesh Beopar Mandal (Kapoor group) chief Madan Lal Kapoor today threatened a state-wide agitation if a notification about the withdrawal of infrastructure cess levied on 200 consumer items was not issued.Kapoor told ENS that Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had given the traders a "lollipop'' by issuing a statement that the imposition of cess was being reviewed. ``There is no question of its reviewing. If the government is sincere for the cause of traders it should immediately issue a notification of this withdrawal,'' he said.Kapoor said Badal had, infact, played a trick on the traders to capture their votes in the Adampur Assembly election by this announcement. He challenged Badal to issue a notification about the infrastructure cess withdrawal to allay this allegation.Reacting to the warnings of the financial commissioner, Excise and Taxation, he said that the traders were collecting cess as per the gazette notification of the principal secretary, Department of Finance of November 11. "As they have so far not got any official intimation regarding the non-collection of cess, there is no other alternative for them but to collect it'', he said.Terming it ``a governmental prank on businessmen'', Kapoor said the cess policy would force many traders, especially the ones dealing in sensitive trades such as automobiles and electronics etc, to shift to the neighbouring states for survival.Kapoor alleged that the SAD-BJP government's anti-trader stance had been totally exposed as it had also failed to fulfill its commitment to abolish octroi. ``We will not keep quite this time if it did not mend its ways and stopped harassing the traders'', said Kapoor.adding that rallies, demonstrations at all the district headquarters were on the agenda to pressurise the government to withdraw the infrastructure cess.
