​Ahead of the impending elections in Delhi, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) launched its traders wing (ATM) here on Saturday, pitching for regulation of e-commerce and simplification of value added tax.

Launching the ATW here, AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal said his party would fight for ‘trade with honesty and dignity’.

“There is a perception that the trading community is dishonest, but the fact is that there is so much corruption-induced harassment that it is difficult to do business,” adding that during 49 days of AAP rule in Delhi, harassment had reduced to a large extent.

Kejriwal said the party had formed district committees in about 400 markets across Delhi, and would soon pan out to other areas.

The party said it short-lived Government had implemented the decision of simplification of the procedure for calculation and payment of VAT, and would work to restore it if it won.

“The party is also of the view that traders should not be harassed by unjustified raids and if governments can provide a business friendly atmosphere, the traders are happy to pay taxes and carry out their work without fear,” it said.

Among the main demands of the traders of Delhi are scrapping of the cumbersome Audit Report 1 (AR1), raising the ceiling limit of composition scheme for bringing more traders under simplified VAT procedure, exempting small traders from registering with VAT authorities and ending random inspections by VAT inspectors, which eventually take the form of harassment raids.

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