A near-total shutdown is what awaits shoppers on Friday, as a majority of retail stores gears up to join wholesale dealers in a show of anti-VAT solidarity.

This marks the culmination of a 10-day strike being observed by the wholesale trade from April 20 to protest the introduction of VAT.

Medicine and milk outlets apart, most establishments will remain shut on Friday, warned the bandh brigade.

Bharatiya Udyog Vyapar Mandal, the all-India apex body of traders? organisations, had called the wholesale trade shutdown from April 20 to 28 and a retail-cum-wholesale bandh on April 29.

?We have urged all traders, irrespective of which association they belong to and whether their trade falls under VAT or not, to down their shutters and strengthen the voice against VAT,?? said Mahesh Singhania, spokesperson for the Federation of the West Bengal Trade Associations.

But the management at Forum, the mall on Elgin Road, confirmed that the facility would remain open on Friday and it was up to the retailers to open their shops.

At 22, Camac Street, while Pantaloons acknowledged the effort on the part of those calling the trade bandh to communicate the cause, playing it by the ear was the prescribed path till late on Thursday. The wait-and-watch mood was mirrored by Westside.

Hundreds of wholesale and retail traders in the city, under the banner of the Federation of Traders? Organisation of West Bengal, staged a demonstration on Rani Rashmoni Avenue on Thursday.

Leaders of the trade bodies criticised the introduction of VAT. A law violation-programme was held by traders.

R.N. Koley, spokesperson for the federation, claimed Friday?s trade bandh would be ?spontaneous?. This apart, he said, the traders were drawing up plans for an extensive movement in the near future.

Home secretary Amit Kiran Deb said police had been asked to keep a watch on various markets on Friday. ?They will take stern action if any attempts are made to down shutters forcibly,?? warned Deb.

Members of the Swarnashilpa Bachao Committee met finance minister Asim Dasgupta at Writers? Buildings on Thursday and later confirmed that they wouldn?t participate in the trade bandh, as they were ?supportive of VAT?.