The Cloth Merchants Association of Dharwad has urged the Union government to waive GST for one year to help cloth merchants to recover from losses and return to their normal business.
Senior members of the Cloth Merchants Association Lalit Bhandari, Vijay Solake, Hemraj Bhandari and others have written to the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman seeking GST waiver and released to the media on Tuesday copies of their letter.
In the letter, Mr. Lalit Bhandari and the others have said that cloth merchants have been undergoing losses due to the COVID-19-induced lockdown and other restrictions. They have demanded special relief package such as the one announced for the MSME sector to bail them out.
They have said that for the second year in succession, cloth merchants have been barred from carrying out their businesses, first due to the first wave and now, the second wave. They have mentioned that the cloth merchants in the State have been forced to close down shops due to the second wave and it has been 42 days without business now.
Last year, shops were closed for nearly a 100 days and this year, during the peak marriage season, lockdown has been imposed forcing closure of business at a time when they were hoping for a recovery. They have pointed out that youths, particularly girls from humble backgrounds from rural areas employed in cloth shops, are being paid salaries despite the lockdown on humanitarian grounds.
They have urged through the letter the Union Finance Minister to consider their problems and that of weavers and waive GST for a year so as to help cloth shops to at least recover losses and make minimal profit.
