Kanpur textile merchants down shutters against GST

Kanpur, June 15: The wholesale textile merchants in Kanpur downed shutters on Thursday against some provisions of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), set to be implemented across the country from July 1.

There are about 4,000 wholesale shops here whose daily trade in textiles is worth around Rs 100 crore.

The retail outlets, however, have been given exemption owing to forthcoming Eid festival and have been asked to open shops if they wish to.

As of now, traders say, there was only tax at the entry point and no taxation thereafter.

"There was no deliberation on the textile sector and we thought that we were exempted but now have been told of a 5 per cent tax on clothes," said an angry trader.

Angry at the new tax regime, the traders have now threatened that they will neither pay tax nor get themselves registered for the GST.

"This is just a token show of protest," a trader said, adding that if things were not settled before the actual GST rollout, the traders would proceed on an indefinite strike from July 1.

Kanpur gets maximum cloth from Surat and traders there have already announced strike from July 1.

Kanpur Cloth Merchant Association president Kashi Prasad Sharma said as of now, their focus was on Thursday's strike and they would take a call on the July 1 strike after considering a response from the central government if any.