Textile traders take out massive rally in Surat during ongoing indefinite strike to protest GST

Surat: The textile traders in Surat city, a famous hub of textile business, today took out a massive rally in the city as part of their ongoing indefinite strike against GST since its implementation on July 1.

The rally estimated to have been attended by around one lakh traders and others associated with the industry started from Kalasar gate amid tight security and ended at Kinnari Chowk after covering a distance of around 2 and a half km.

Convener of Surat Textile Bachao Sangarsh Samiti Tarachand Kasat and its core committee member Dev Kisan Mangani said that the participants in the rally had wrapped black ribbon/scarf as a mark of protest.

‘The government which had given us merely 27 days for preparation (the period between notification and implementation) had promised not to bring any such item in the ambit of GST which was not taxed earlier. But it has imposed tax on cloth which was not taxed earlier on. We will continue with our indefinite strike and the industry would be finished if the government does not remove GST from cloth,’ Kasat said adding that Germany and Japan had given over a year to the business community for implementation of GST.

Mangani said that the Industry was not averse to the imposition of GST on yarn but that on cloth was not acceptable.

‘We are ready to pay a few percent more on yarn but remove it from cloths,’ he said.

Kasat said that the textile traders had a meeting with the center’s emissary and union minister Mansukh Mandaviya yesterday but it was inconclusive.

We and all the textile traders and those associated with the industry across the country would continue our fight, he said.

Meanwhile, elaborate security arrangements were made for the rally with deployment of over 500 police personnel on its route to avert any untoward incident.

Notably during the strike, a face off between the traders and police had resulted in to baton charge and stone pelting in which some including two policemen had injured a few days back.

DeshGujarat