Over 450 retail and wholesale cloth merchants in Haryana are against the GST proposed on clothes by the government.
According to the merchants, the new tax slab on clothes will escalate the cost of clothes for customers and they fear a slowdown in the cloth trade after the imposition of the GST.
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In order to protest against the GST, they have decided to shut their establishments in the district on June 15.
General Secretary of the Wholesale Cloth Association, Madan Lal Jhamb said, “cloth traders are already reeling under a financial crisis due to last November’s demonetisation. The imposition of the GST will make clothes costlier, adversely affecting their sales, especially in small towns”.
He said that the cloth traders will have to maintain records after GST comes into effect from July 1.
“It will not be possible to follow all guidelines of the GST, as retail traders buy clothes from wholesalers on credit and also return unsold clothes to them routinely. Also, they make payments when convenient. Hence, it is not easy to maintain ledgers under such a situation,” he added.
He further said that the traders are not against GST but the tax imposed. The tax can be imposed at the time of manufacturing clothes.
“A state level meeting of all cloth traders is likely to be held in next two or three days to decide the further course of action”.
