SRI NAGAR: Shoaib Banday, 56, rues the ruin of his trade.He has been in the Kashmiri carpet trade for over two decades but says he can’t recall such a slide. “I am seriously broke. Will have to give up this ancestral trade but there is no other option if I and my family is to survive,” he says.
Banday, who deals in raw material of carpets, said his trade has dropped by 80% post GST. “The carpet trade went into a serious tailspin, forcing many master weavers to opt for other trades, sparking off a fall in demand for raw material too.”
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“Maximum of my weaver clients gave up carpet weaving as they were unable to manage their livelihoods. Carpets are Kashmir’s identity. If things don’t improve, it is Kashmir that would lose,” added Banday.
In fact the Kashmiri carpet, famous the world over for its rich colour and weave and engaging over 1.5 lakh people in the Valley, is in the throes of an existential crisis, with traders blaming GST for the mess.
“It is on ventilator now; on its last breath. It may be extinct in the next few years,” says Banday.
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Sheikh Ashiq, carpet trader and president of Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), said the industry contributed Rs 500 crore to the local economy annually pre-GST. Post GST, retail prices shot up 12%, resulting in immediate trade drop by 30%.
“Since Kashmir carpets are hand-made and labour intense, higher costs on raw material and labour charges, added to GST, turned the trade into total loss. Of the 50-70 exporters, some 15 have already dropped off as long-time credit in this high-value trade slowly backed out and traders failed to fulfill commitments and suffered losses,” he said.
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The government did cut GST from 12% to 5% following repeated pleas in July 2018 but the damage was permanent. Rafiq Ahmad, another businessman in carpet trade for last 42 years, said, post GST, traders found they could not earn the money spent on making a single carpet even at 5% tax.
“I operated 100 looms and engaged over 300 weavers. I was forced to close about 80 looms as weavers found it increasingly difficult to earn even Rs 400 a day. Many switched trade to eke out a living,” he said.
Ahmad’s operations had also supported some 100 women. However, with the trade-in terminal decline, they too were disengaged. Today, it’s difficult to find people to join the carpet trade.
“I predict, that if concrete measures are not taken to arrest this downward trend, the Kashmiri carpet industry may be extinct by 2025,” he said, adding, “GST has destroyed the carpet industry”.