HYDERABAD: Telangana Handlooms and Textiles Minister KT Rama Rao, on Thursday, demanded that the Centre immediately withdraw the additional GST proposals to be levied on the textile industry from January 1. Rama Rao penned a letter to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman asking her to withdraw the tax hike proposal at the GST Council to be chaired by her on Friday. He said the GST hike would affect the industry which is hoping to come out of the Covid crisis.
He said 80 to 85 per cent of the country’s handloom industry products would be adversely affected by the GST hike. Rama Rao pointed out that the Central government, which could not keep its promise of creating 2 crore jobs a year, should immediately withdraw the hike proposal.
Ammonabolu Prakash, president of the Telangana State Federation of Textile Associations, said that the textile industry is present even in remote villages and 80 per cent of the people in this trade are part of the unorganised workforce and can’t be employed in other industries.