CHENNAI: Textile fabric, so far exempted from any kind of tax, is set to come under the 5% tax slab starting Saturday. Ashraf Tayub of the Tamil Nadu Textile Merchants Association said the new tax structure would impose a heavy burden on traders and retailers, especially small traders.
“Small traders will have to purchase a computer and employ two special accountants, with an additional burden of Wi-Fi facility,” he said. The GST returns should be filed between 1st and 15th of every month, he said. According to traders, bringing small traders and proprietors of 1,000-crore businesses under the same umbrella shows a lack of thought.
Although the GST on textiles has been limited to 5%, P Ravichandran of Erode Cloth Merchants Association, said the 18% GST on labour would be enough to bring the industry to its knees. “The vouchers paid to contract labourers are also taxable and will invariably result in the value of industry products going up. Even the movement of goods has been curtailed.”
While the government claims it would take just 30 minutes for online GST registration, Sullaiman Karim of the TN Textile Merchants Association said it took him much longer. “There were a lot of session time-outs before I got it right. Imagine the plight of small traders. Some spend Rs 3,000-4,000 to register,” he said.
“As far as consumers are concerned, a bill of Rs 2,000, for instance, would now come to Rs 2,100. “Consumers will look to bargain a lot more in an attempt to ease the burden,” said Tayub.