HPMA, Haryana Plywood Manufacturers Association facilitated Haryana Government Forest minister Mr Kawarpal along with MLA Yamunanagar Mr Ghanshyam Das Arora and Mayor Mr Madan Chauhan. During the greeting ceremony held on 15th January, HPMA President Mr. J K Bihani sought to abolish the mandi tax on Timber. He also requested government to to refund security money, which was collected by the government in the name of issuing licence for wood based industry. Replying to the demands the Forest minister Mr Kawarpal assured them to bring out a solution after talking to the state Chief Minister.
On the occasion 150 plywood industry players and member of HPMA were present. Addressing the audience Mr Bihani, said, “I would like to say that the mandi tax should be abolished as there is no such tax in Punjab and other states. We procure raw materials from Punjab and UP that cost us more. If the government wants, it can be easily abolished because due to it the government will not have to sacrifice huge amount of revenues in it.” He hoped that efforts made by the ministers and MLA will make a difference and the mandi tax will be abolished. He further said, “The licensing fee amount taken by the government should be released, because when the application process was going on in Haryana and fee has been collected by the state government. At the same time a central government notification clarified that if any plywood factory runs on plantation timber then the industry is not required of licence. So, I would like to say that fee should not be taken by the government. What application was collected by the government had been converted into registration, so technically the government should pay back the amount collected during process.”
The state forest and education minister Mr Kawarpal Gurjar assured to help them to abolish this mandi tax and suggested that the stake holders should stick with their demand. On this occasion Mr Devendra Chawala, President (AIPMA), Mr Satish Chopal, Senior Vice President (HPMA) along with other senior members of HPMA such as Mr Vimal Chopra, Mr Ramnivas Garg, Mr Sandeep Kumar, Mr Rakesh Khurana, Mr Balvindar Singh, Mr Shiv Kumar, Mr Lavish Singh, Professor Shrvan Kumar, Mr Ajay Maniktahla, Mr. Narendra Bansal, Mr. Sandip Jindal etc were present.
Minister promised, “I will make my best effort with sincere attention to discuss the matter with Chief Minister so that you can come out of the problems quickly.” Few years before the industry people had sought for complete abolishment of Mandi Tax on plantation timber trade, such as that of Eucalyptus and Poplar. Plywood manufacturers, factory workers and Timber merchants protested in Yamunanagar once.