Vijayawada: The imposition of Goods and Services Tax (GST) across the country is having an impact on various sectors. Industries, particularly, the food and textile units, have been facing serious issues after implementation of GST. Sellers at the wholesale textile market are incurring losses as the invoice price of textiles has increased. The biggest retail cloth market in the state Vastralatha witnessed a 50 per cent fall in the sales.
Vastralatha, with 413 retail shops selling garments and textiles, is witnessing reverse growth after implementation of GST and traders are searching alternative ways to avoid losses. “GST had a serious impact on traders in market and sales were down despite of Sravana Masam and wedding season. A majority of the sellers are witnessing loss,”said Vastralatha president Chintalapudi Raghuram.
The Andhra Pradesh Textile Federation, which agitated for more than one month opposing GST, is now gearing to start another agitation. “Retail textile industry is facing severe hardships with GST. The cloth traders across the nation have agitated opposing it and still the government were forcing us. We have represented Union ministers Arun Jaitley, Smruti Irani and others requesting to exempt us from GST or at least reduce the tax slabs. But our pleas were ignored and we were forced to enrol under GST,” said AP Textile Federation president, Busireddy Malleswara Reddy.
The middle-class and middle-aged are our targeted customers and they are now tending to buy readymade textiles with rise in standard of living cost of textiles. Many shops are on the verge of closure and hundreds of staff working there were suffering, he added. He said that All India Textile Association were preparing action plan to continue agitations.
