COIMBATORE: With a week to go for the union government to table the budget, MSMEs expressed hope that finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman would announce measures to reduce price of raw materials.
The Coimbatore Tiruppur District Micro and Cottage Entrepreneurs Association (COTMA) said it expected the Union government to slash interest rates for loan issued by nationalised banks. COTMA president C Sivakumar said, “As far as GST is concerned, the slab must be reduced from 12 per cent to 5 per cent for job order done based on labour charge. Similarly, the Union government must take efforts to establish a public sector undertaking in Coimbatore to boost the city’s development.”
Laghu Udyog Bharati-Tamil Nadu raised concerns over three modes of GST like IGST, CGST, and SGST. The State joint general secretary of the body M Sivakumar said the Union government should come up with a mechanism to share GST revenue among stake holders and taxpayers should be charged only one form of GST.
Stating the automotive sector is witnessing turmoil ever over shifting from BS-IV to BS-VI standards, Sivakumar said the conversion to electric vehicles (EVs) and semi-conductor chip shortages have also brought down the sales to pre-2012 levels, down by almost 30-50 per cent.
“To overcome this, 2WHs and small cars should no longer be considered as luxury vehicles, especially post-Covid. We request suitable amendments in the GST rates for such vehicles from the current 28 to 18 per cent which would offset the recent reduction in the volumes across this sector,” Sivakumar explained.
Meanwhile, the body also sought a knitwear board to be established in Tiruppur district to act as a catalyst for the growth of the knitwear apparel industrial segment.