Jammu, 29-Apr: In a meeting held at Jammu it was unanimously decided by all members of ATI that no timber trader will attend any General timber Auction till their genuine dements were not met. Speaking on the occasion President of the Association Joginder singh said that earlier auction bid rates were inclusive of all taxes and now what JKFDCl (JK forest development corp. ltd )said that an extra 2.5 per cent T.C.S will be charged on the bid rates .He further said that the whole department was befouling timber traders as they said that they are giving 5 per cent discounts but actually when calculated it was 4.17 per cent and now what the department said that they will be giving only 4 percent discounts .Vice president Puneet Jamwal said that as the timber is local product of state and even then traders are being forced to buy timber from outside states like Himachal and Uttarakhand whose quality and quantity and rates are much better .Kuldeep singh Chairman said that the profits of timber traders are already very thin and now department is forcing draconian rules to squeeze their profits and at now cost they will allow these rules to be included in auctions .Adding that its going to be a long battle and every traders has to be ready as its matter of their lively hood and under no circumstances they will attend auction till taxes are included in bid rates and a actual discount of net 5 percent is given to tradersVice President Bharat bhusan gupta urged L.G U.T J &k Sh Manoj sinha to intervene in the matter and resolve the issue of timber trading community and save it from being ruined.Other present in the meeting were shamsher singh , Sr Sumit gupta Gen sect ,Rajesh gupta cashier , Raj singh Cashier and all timber traders. (CNS)
