Cloth merchants on Tuesday launched their Statewide bandh in protest against imposition of 5% tax on textiles under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime, which would come into force from June 30 midnight.
The strike would continue till June 29. The traders would observe June 30 as “black day.” The traders, under the aegis of the Andhra Pradesh Textile Federation, staged a dharna in front of Krishnaveni Wholesale Cloth Market here. Waving black flags, they demanded that the Centre exempt textiles from the GST purview.
Federation State vice-president B.J.P. Srinivas said the GST would adversely affect the retailers and small-time vendors. More than 80% of the people buy clothes from the local merchants. Taxing the small-time merchants would affect them severely as they do not have proper computer knowledge to upload the bills and maintain accounts, he said. Treasurer Velampalli Ramachandra Rao said that lakhs of people were dependent on the textile trade. They were eking out their livelihood without depending on and expecting any assistance from the government. Though the government was providing incentives to all sectors, there was hardly any help to the textile trade. Also, levying a tax on textiles was unprecedented in the country’s history, he said.
Federation leaders Bachu Venkataprasad, Vagicherla Balaprasad, Vallamkonda Prasad, and Pokuri Ramesh spoke.
