Agitating textile traders of Surat to meet Dy CM, Jaitley

Surat: Agitating Textile traders from Surat are scheduled to meet the Deputy Chief Minister of Gujarat in Gandhinagar today afternoon. The traders are seeking simplification of GST and its imposition on yarn instead textile. The traders are also scheduled to meet union finance minister Arun Jaitley on July 11.

Demands of Textile traders:

– Waiver of GST for textile
– Imposition of GST over yarn and not textile for simplification purpose
– No GST should be levied on stock which is already there with traders prior to GST
– 18 months extension

The government’s stand so far:

– GST can not be waived off, but suggestions found worthy for simplification are to be heard and discussed in GST council meet.

– If GST for other business, why not for textile traders? The demand to waive off GST is improper.

Political impact:

Traders are traditionally BJP voters. When Congress leaders Ashok Gehlot and Bharatsinh Solanki visited the agitating traders at Surat ring road, the traders shouted pro-Modi slogans and refused to meet Congress leaders.

Government’s efforts

– The government first fielded Navsari MP CR Patil to talk to agitating traders. Patil addressed a gathering of textile traders in auditorium of university and convinced around 1,000 traders to reopen their businesses. Next day, the other faction of agitating traders disallowed this to happen however.

– The government sent MoS in Centre and Rajya Sabha MP from Gujarat Mansukh Mandavia to meet the CAs, textile traders, weaving industry representatives in Surat and other industries representatives in Rajkot.

– Three ministers of State government met agitating textile traders in Surat and heard them for two hours after a grand rally of one lakh textile traders.

What next?

-The textile traders are today meeting the deputy chief minister and finance minister in government of Gujarat Nitin Patel in Gandhinagar. They are also likely to meet finance minister Arun Jaitley in Delhi tomorrow. Textile traders are holding laughter show today in a unique way of protest under the JJ market bridge. They are also trying to organize a rally of around 10,000 women working in embroidery industry.

DeshGujarat