MARGAO
The Margao New Market Traders Association on Thursday has served a warning to the Margao Municipality that they will stop paying the taxes if illegal vendors and hawkers are permitted to do business on the city’s pavements and footpaths.
The warning from the Traders Association President Vinod Shirodkar came after a group of vendors, who were removed from the Sadekar lane footpath, went to the Margao Municipality in support of their demand to allow them to operate from the footpath.
What has further agitated the New Market traders were reports that two Margao Municipal councillors accompanied the illegal vendors to the officers of the civic body in a bid to permit the vendors to occupy the footpaths.
Vinod Shirodkar has warned that the New Market traders will stop the payment of all taxes and fees to the Municipality in the event illegal vendors and hawkers are allowed to do business on the footpaths and pavements. Saying that the Chief Officer Rohit Kadam had initiated a number of steps to stop the vendors from doing business on the footpaths, Shirodkar said some councillors seemed to be supporting the illegal vendors. “These illegal vendors neither pay GST nor any taxes to the government or the civic body. Unlike the traders in the New Market, these vendors only pay the sopo fees amounting to Rs 10 per day,” he said, adding that the Municipality will be doing injustice on the New Market traders if the illegal vendors and hawkers are allowed to occupy the pavements and footpaths.
Shirodkar reminded that the traders had sustained huge losses during the Covid-19 pandemic after the markets were shut, and lamented that neither the government nor the Margao Municipality had provided them any relief in terms of reduction of taxes or payment of fees.
He has requested the Chief Officer Kadam to continue his drive against illegal business activities and rid the city footpaths and pavements from the illegal vendors and hawkers.
