Telangana textile traders demand rollback of GST hike

Hyderabad: The textile traders of Telangana held an emergency general body meeting consequent to the Centre's announcement of increase in GST from 5 per cent to 12 per cent (120 per cent increase) on textiles from January 1, 2022. More than 100 representatives of cloth merchants' associations from 33 districts of Telangana participated in the meeting which was chaired by Ammonabolu Prakash, president, Telangana State Federation of Textile Associations (TSFTA). The meet demanded immediate rollback of increased GST on textiles.

The meeting opposed increase of GST on textiles on various grounds. Ever since Independence, textiles were never taxed and was always covered under exempted goods. About 80 per cent of the people in this trade are unorganised and less educated. Women are working in this trade in urban and rural areas. They chose this business to earn their livelihood because it was a free trade business and it does not require any skill.

Under GST, the trader has to pay tax immediately. This will result in tremendous pressure on the trader in the form of working capital. Traders have to reinvest working capital for regular business. To sell the dead stock, the trader is forced to sell the same under cost and claiming of input is a very difficult task, traders pointed out.

The textile industry is already seeing a 15-20 per cent job losses, wage cuts, social and personal traumas due to Covid-19. Increase of another 7 per cent to the prices lead to a very severe drop in consumption.

There are about 75,000 to 1,00,000 textile traders in Telangana. Any increase in GST on Textiles can lead to the closure of lakhs of small retail shops, vendors.