“What should I do now? This (restaurant) is my family’s only source of livelihood. Without this, we will have nothing to eat,” she says helplessly. Seni is one of the more than 260 traders who have started a countdown to shut down their “illegally-run” businesses, following the NGO’s ultimatum.
The YMA which conducted a detection drive against “illegal” non-tribal traders in Mizoram since last year end, found that there are more than 20 non-tribals who married to Mizo women to do business in the tribal state in the names of their wives.
Including such women married to non-tribals, there are over 260 Mizos in Aizawl alone who lent their names to non-tribals so that the latter can do business here without trade license. The YMA’s move is a follow-up to its 2012 year theme – ‘ram leh hnam humhalh’ or protection of the land and the people.
“We had conducted a detection drive last year where we found that there are over 264 non-tribal businessmen doing different trades in the state capital alone in the guise of tribals, by either marrying to Mizo women or using Mizo names,” a source from the YMA said.
“Mizoram is a specially protected state since the British time, and no non-tribal can do business here without license.
Under the trading regulations, doing business in the guise of tribals is illegal,” the source said.
According to the YMA, there are a number of shops and restaurants in Aizawl which are registered under Mizo names but the real owners are non-tribals. In this process, the state government has also lost huge revenue as the non-tribal traders have evaded income tax by trading under the guise of Mizo tribals who are exempted from the income tax.
“Our target is benami traders. Non-tribals doing business with valid permits will not be touched. But illegal traders would not be spared,” says T Sangkunga, president of central YMA.
According to Mizoram Business Organisation, there are 53 non-tribals who have trade license in the state.
While 16 of them are permanent trade license, the rest 37 are temporary trade licenses. All the trade licenses were issued during the period of 1960 to 1975. Most of the temporary trade licenses are illegally inherited from their parents, the MBO said.
The YMA also alleged that many non-tribal traders, including wealthy contractors and suppliers, were also using Mizo names to evade income tax. There is also gross misuse of the Inner Line Permit that any non-tribal requires for visiting or staying in Mizoram, regulated since the British time.
“Many ILP holders were engaged in doing businesses and other works which were not allowed in their permits while many others continued to stay in the state long after their ILP is expired,” a source in the YMA said.
This illegal practice, the YMA feared, posed threats to the social and economic security of the indigenous people of Mizoram who are specially protected from the threats of assimilation since the British time. Similar drives have been undertaken in other district capitals of Mizoram.