Hyderabad: Handloom workers from across Telangana on Wednesday demanded the implementation of Zero GST (Goods and Services tax) on handlooms as they argued that it affected their business dreadfully.
Speaking at the meet in Press Club, Somajiguda, Avvari Bhaskar, the president of Telangana Padmashali Yuvajana Sangam president spoke about how 75 years since Independence, the Centre had never placed a GST on handlooms but the Bharatiya Janata Party ruled Centre now seems hell bent upon stamping on the achievements of handloom weavers.
Bhaskar invoked Mahatma Gandhi who spearheaded the Swadeshi movement and asked the Centre to honour the legacy handloom weavers played in the freedom struggle.
“It is contradictory to see the Prime Minister wear handlooms on one hand, and tramples on the struggle of weavers on the other,” Bhaskar said.
He also spoke about how the Mahatma Gandhi Bunkar Bhima Yojana, the handloom board or the Yarn subsidy scheme (which was reduced from 40% to 15%) were all sidelined by the Centre which left handloom weavers in precarious conditions.
Adding to Bhaskar, Lakshmi Narayana, another handloom weaver from Mahbubnagar stated that while they were appreciative of what the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government in the state did for the weavers of Telangana, the Centre’s GST policy has born little fruit.
Three days ago, Telangana state textiles minister KT Rama Rao started an online postcard campaign appealing the Union government to remove GST on handloom products to protect the interests of weavers and the country’s cultural heritage.
The weavers union brought up the support offered by KTR and expressed their gratitude. “While the state has been on our side, the Centre’s policies have adversely affected us. We demand the GST imposed on handlooms to be rolled back at once,” added Bhaskar.
On Saturday, KTR had written a postcard to Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking him to roll back 5% GST on handloom products.
“The handloom sector in India is reeling under the impact of the COVID pandemic and any move to increase the tax will sound the death knell for the sector,” he stated, adding that handloom weaving represents one of the richest and most vibrant aspects of the Indian cultural heritage. He remarked that this is the first government to levy GST on handlooms since independence.
Earlier in December, KTR had pointed out that the textile industry contributes to the second-highest employment in the country and were still dealing with COVID’s impacts. It was hence, he argued, the responsibility of the Centre to come to the rescue of weavers instead of increasing the GST to 12%.
