The Jatiya Hawkers’ Federation (JHF) at its third national conference yesterday alleged that hawkers had to pay Tk850 crore every year as toll to different agencies across the country.
Addressing the conference at the Photo Journalists’ Association auditorium in the capital, union leaders said each hawker or vendor has to pay Tk50 every day on average as toll to run his business.
The speakers said the hawkers and vendors had long been pressing for formulating a national policy for their rehabilitation, but the successive governments did not pay heed to it.
The hawkers had long been falling victims to harassment and extortion in running their business, which caused revenue losses to the national exchequer, the union leaders added.
The conference elected a 31-member executive committee with Arif Chowdhury and Rafiqul Islam as president and general secretary respectively for a two-year term.