Bandh will cost the govt Rs 10 cr

new delhi: the cost of a day's bandh for the city government in terms of revenue alone would be a whopping rs 10 crore, with sales tax accounting for nearly half this amount. with the capital being a major distribution centre, sales tax is the most important source of revenue for the delhi government. the friday's bandh will put additional pressure on the sales tax authorities for recovery to meet its projected target for the financial year 2000-2001.``the actual loss to the government may be much higher since this figure is primarily on account of sales tax. one can calculate the extent of the damage from the amount of trading taking place in delhi everyday which would be between rs 300 to 400 crore. and since wholesale markets are open on a friday the figure has to be much higher than being anticipated,'' a senior sales tax official said. officials added the top revenue earners for the government like chandni chowk, naya bazar, chawri bazar, nai sarak and sadar bazar did not do any business. so does a bandh solve any purpose, except gaining some political mileage? while launching a scathing attack on the bjp and other outfits of the sangh parivar for the bandh, delhi congress chief subhash chopra said such bandh only cause harassment to the people. ``the bandh has caused a substantial revenue loss to the government and our party opposes such actions. the bjp gave a call for the bandh to divert the attention of the people from security lapses in kashmir,'' chopra added. the delhi bjp leaders, however, justified the bandh saying all essential services had been exempted. party president mange ram garg said the bjp could not be held responsible for any loss to the government since the party had given the bandh call after a gap of almost 15 years. garg claimed they had not forced people to close their establishments. ``most of the market associations had voluntarily decided to protest even before we gave the call for a bandh,''he said. the delhi bjp chief said the demand for a bandh had been made by the party's local districts. ``since this reflects the mood of delhiites we decided to ahead with the bandh,'' he said. gain or loss? * the bandh is likely to cause a revenue loss of rs 10 crore to the city government. * congress criticises the bandh saying it only causes harassment and loss to the government. * the delhi bjp chief justifies the bandh saying the party organised it after a span of 15 years.