Nagaland: Cong blames Rio govt for alleged multiple taxation, intimidation to business community

The Nagaland Congress has squarely blamed the Neiphiu Rio government for allegedly failing to check issues of multiple taxation, extortion and intimidation to the business community in the state.

The Congress statement comes in view of the indefinite shutdown called by the Dimapur Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) in protest against the alleged multiple taxation, intimidation and summons to members of the business community in the state, allegedly by various political groups.

In a sharp attack on the Nagaland Government, the Congress in a press statement said, “We hold the government of the day fully responsible for the unfortunate situation at hand and would like to point out that the cancerous culture of extortion plaguing the Naga society today is neither a recent phenomenon nor a simple case of governance deficit but is an outcome of the wilful and total abdication of constitutional responsibilities by the current regime since the day it came to power some two decades ago.”

The Congress said, “We acknowledge the untold sufferings of the business community in Dimapur as well as in other parts of the state, as they are bled dry day in day out, financially as well as psychologically, right under the very nose of the incumbent government.

We also sympathize with the common people for having had to face so much inconveniences not just due to the ongoing shutter down agitation by the business community, but for the decades that they were forced to shoulder the bulk of the burden raised by the menace of these unabated illegal taxations.”

In view of this, the Congress has demanded that the Nagaland Government take adequate steps to mitigate the problem so that the business community can heave a sigh of relief.

“We demand that the government of the day take strong and concrete measures to ensure that the issue is addressed promptly, and for good, while imploring upon the business community to reconsider the indefinite nature of their agitation, keeping in view the possible compounding of the hardships borne by the general populace,” the Congress said in it’s statement.

Shops and business establishments in Dimapur, Chümoukedima, Kohima and Wokha have kept their shutters down today, in protest against the alleged multiple taxation, intimidation and summons to members of the business community in the state, allegedly by various political groups.