BENGALURU: After six years of petitioning and campaigning, banana-fibre weavers managed to get a waiver on Value Added Tax (VAT) for their products. The relief lasted only for two years and now the Goods and Services Tax has cast a longer shadow on their trade. The tax on their products is nearly three times higher than what it was under VAT regime.
S M Hebbal, founder of Gramya Turnkey Services, is at the popular Dastakar Bengaluru Nature Bazaar 2017. He says, “We had approached three Chief Ministers of Karnataka, since 2003, to get a tax exemption for banana-fibre products. In March 2015, we finally got an exemption from 5 per cent of VAT, after meeting the commissioner of commercial taxes.”
Now, the new tax under GST is 12 per cent and it has increased the cost of their product by `300 to `400. He says, “Without VAT, our prices were `180 for folders, `1,500 for yoga mats and `2,400 for lamps. VAT increased those prices by 5 per cent. Now, with GST, the cost of a folder is around `220, `1,800 for yoga mats and `2,800 for lamps.”
Hebbal says that government does little to encourage handicrafts, which are the only source of income for many in villages. “These products are also eco-friendly and biodegradable,” he says.
The Gramya TS, an NGO started in 2002, has so far trained about 200 families who were labourers earlier, from five villages of Chitradurga district. They make a variety of products using banana fibre, including juti, utility bags, lamps, files, folders and wallets.
The craftsmanship has been appreciated across the world and he says that they have buyers in international markets, including the US. Hebbal says that these products are longlasting. “A customer from Bengaluru had written to us that they have been using the same utility bags and mats for a decade now,” he adds.
Banan-fibre products take time to make, about two to three weeks. “After the harvest of banana, the fibre from the bark is extracted. It is then treated with water and spun into yarn. People work in groups,” says Hebbal.
The craftspeople are facing another calamity as well. With shortage of rains in the state, artisans have to walk 30 to 100 km in search of good fibre. He says, “These fibres are extracted only from select varieties of banana plants.”Dastakar is at Manpho Convention Centre, near Manyata Tech Park, is on till August 20.
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