In protest to increased GST on garments, leading textile hubs Delhi, Surat and Ahmedabad will be on strike tomorrow (30 December). From 1 January 2022, the GST will be 12 per cent on all kinds of garments.Earlier, garments pricedbelow Rs. 1,000 had 5 per cent GST only.
In Ahmedabad, around 45,000 apparel retail and wholesale shops will remain closed for the day.
It is worth highlighting here that GST hike may lead to closure of 67,000 to 95,000 SME units in India.
Gaurang Bhagat, president of Maskati Cloth Merchants’ Association, Ahmedabad said, “Raising taxes at a time when clothing industry is barely recovering from the after-effects of Covid is is outrageous. This will not just increase our working capital needs but also dent demand in the longer run.”
The bandh in Surat, India’s largest man-made fabric hub, has been supported by the Surat Mercantile Association (SMA). The Association has appealed to the textile traders to keep their shops shut as part of the symbolic bandh to protest the GST rate hike on the MMF fabric.
In Delhi, many trade bodies held a meeting and also decided to go for day-long strike. Representatives of all leading textile markets unanimously agreed that they have to oppose strongly this decision of GST hike.
The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has also requested the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to defer the implementation of GST rate hike on textiles and footwear.
