Srinagar, April 01 (KMS): In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, the members of Kashmir Trade Alliance (KTA) held a protest at Press Enclave in Srinagar against the anti-people policies of the authorities.

The KTA members, led by Aijaz Shahdhar, opposed the recent order issued by the Regional Transport Officer of Kashmir for re-registration of vehicles bought outside Jammu and Kashmir. They demanded exemption from double taxation of vehicles purchased outside the territory.

Aijaz Shahdhar on the occasion said, the authorities must revoke the arbitrary order as this is total injustice with the vehicle owners and also with the dealers as they now have to pay the tax amount twice at the rate of 9 per cent.

“A customer buys a vehicle and at the time of buying he pays tax amount at the rate of 9 per cent for lifetime. Then after owning the vehicle for around 8 years, he sells the vehicle to another person. That same vehicle is bought to Kashmir, however, the first owner has already paid the tax at 9 per cent for lifetime, now what RTO Kashmir is asking that they must re-register the vehicles bought outside the territory and pay the tax at the rate of 9 per cent one more time, which is total injustice,” he said.

He said that how can they pay the tax again when it is already paid by the first owner of the vehicle and they have already been paying the charges, which was the norm.

Meanwhile, the teachers of the School Education Department staged a protest demonstration in Srinagar demanding that their pending salaries must be released while their regularization orders must also be issued without any delay.

Several such teachers from different parts of the Valley-who have been working in the department for last more than 15 years-appeared in the Press Enclave and said that they are facing many hardships due to the non-payment of their salaries for the last two years. They also raised slogans in favour of their demands.