Textile traders demand withdrawal of GST

Vijayawada: Andhra Pradesh Textiles Federation (APTF) state president B Malleswara Reddy on Sunday demanded that the Central government immediately withdraw the Goods and Services Tax (GST) to be imposed on textile business from July 1 this year.

Highlights:

• Vow to continue struggle till the Centre concedes their demand
• Say tax rules give room to corruption and harassment by tax officials
• Express concern that livelihood of lakhs of people depending on the trade like tailors will be affected by the GST

Malleswara Reddy said nearly one crore people are directly or indirectly depending on the textile trade and related activities in Andhra Pradesh and many families would be affected by the GST.

Textile traders from 13 districts of Andhra Pradesh attended the meeting held at the Krishnaveni wholesale textile complex in One Town on Sunday and discussed their problems arising out of GST from July 1. Several hundred textile traders who came from all the districts expressed apprehensions that the prices of cloth and garments would increase with the GST, which will ultimately affect both businesses and consumers.

Malleswara Reddy said as per the GST, taxes will be levied on yarn, manufacturing, dying, additional work on the cloth like embroidery, etc. He said the government could collect taxes at the manufacturing stage without collecting GST from the retailers.

Recalling that Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu as Opposition leader had extended his support to the textile traders when the Congress government increased VAT, he said as the Chief Minister he should take the responsibility and put pressure on the Centre to withdraw the GST on sale of textiles, cloths and garments.

APTF general secretary B Venkata Narasimha Rao said that textile traders had already taken the issue to the notice of finance minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu and asserted that textile traders would continue their agitation till the Union government withdrew GST on textile traders.

He said the GST would ultimately lead to corruption. He further added that tailors, retail traders and others depending on the profession would be severely affected by the GST.A textile trader B Ramakrishna said there were some clauses in the GST which can be used to harass textile traders, who can also be arrested for not complying with the rules incorporated in the GST laws.

He said as per the GST, five per cent tax is levied on the purchase of textiles below Rs 1,000 and the tax rate would jump to 13 per cent if the total sales exceed Rs 1,000. The textile traders resolved to continue their struggle till tax is withdrawn on the trade.