Srinagar, Jan 29: Shahr-e-Khass Traders And Manufacturers Coordination Committee (SKTMCC), Srinagar city’s main traders’ association, has urged the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to consider J&K business community’s precarious situation in the upcoming budget session, starting from 1st February, 2022.
“We are having high hopes on the upcoming budget. The last year fiscal budget was one lakh crores which was a handsome one. This year while we need a similar type of budget in size but with different ideas”, SKTMCC President Bashir Ahmad Kanu, Senior Vice President Arif Ahmad Wani, General Secretary Ajaz Ahmad Pampori, Spokesperson Javed Habib and President of Zaina Kadal Market Mohammad Ashraf said in a joint statement to Ziraat Times.
“We as common traders are facing hardships from last 30 years by unfamiliar circumstances is better known to all. We have seen unrest after unrest and from 2014 floods our economy came to a standstill followed by 2016 unrest and 2019 clampdown and Covid lockdowns”, the committee observed expressing regret that traders were only getting loan after loan.
Expressing regret that after paying regular EMIs of those loans, traders had got financially weaker and weaker after every passing day, SKTMCC said that they didn’t get any waiver from the Ministry of Finance till date, ‘resulting in greater burden of debts with every passing month.’
Urging the Finance Ministry to give waivers in electricity bills, water bills and financial support to all traders who have suffered during past 8 years in the upcoming budget, SKTMCC further said that they don’t want loans anymore and that ‘they simply require capital infusion in their business ventures so that they can sustain to earn their livelihoods.’
“We know our Finance Minster is very humble and will feel the pain and mental agony of traders. We are hopeful that a special package will be announced for traders who are watching with moist eyes towards Finance Ministry. Such a step will also prove that the central government needs people of J&K too, and not only their piece of land (sic.)”, the statement added.
