Surat: Leaders of power loom weaving associations from the city and across the country have threatened to launch demonstrations at their respective industrial areas if the central government did not accept their demands related to Goods and
Service Tax after the presentation of
Union Budget.
About 100 delegates and representatives of power loom weaving associations from key centres had descended on the Diamond City to participate in the annual general meeting (
AGM) of the Federation of Indian Art
Silk Weaving Industry (FIASWI) on Saturday.
A slew of issues faced by power loom weavers were discussed and the representatives came up with suggestions, including increase in customs duty on imported silk fabrics and man-made fibre fabrics, reduction of GST on velvet fabrics from 12 per cent to 5 per cent, refund of accumulated input tax credit (ITC) at fabric stage, non-refund of excess ITC with job workers, opening stock credit and setting up of anti-profiteering committee etc.
The recommendations have been included in the pre-budget memorandum submitted by FIASWI to Union finance minister Arun Jaitley for consideration in the upcoming Union Budget.
FIASWI chairman Bharat Gandhi told TOI, "The textile sector is staring at huge escalation of cost at the fabric stage. We have been representing to the central government and GST Council for a long time, but in vain. We will wait till the Union Budget is presented and then launch a nation-wide protest without shutting down our units. All our demands are genuine and the natural law of justice should prevail in power loom sector."
He said there is production loss of fabrics by more than 20 per cent in power loom sector in Mumbai and Surat, while overall production loss in the country was at 10 per cent. This has led to thousands of textile workers losing their jobs.
The representatives of power loom associations were disappointed over the customs notification issued on October 27, 2017, which has placed restriction on any increase from the current import duty of 10 per cent on imported silk fabrics and MMF fabrics. The members requested the government to increase import duty from 10 per cent to 25 per cent and 0 per cent to 25 per cent on fabrics imported from China and Vietnam.
Additional commissioner of GST and central excise Prashant Kaduskar, who was also present in the AGM, told TOI, "The demands put forth by the representatives at FIASWI's AGM are genuine. The demands will be forwarded to the concerned ministry in New Delhi."
