Amit Mitra seeks GST Council meet to scrap tax hike in textile

Amit Mitra, the advisor to West Bengal Chief minister Mamata Banerjee, on Friday requested Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to hold an urgent meeting of the GST Council and rescind the 7% tax hike in the textiles sector to prevent job loss and closure of small units.

The union government had notified to increase the tax on natural fibre products from 5% to 12%, including apparels in the lower tax bracket with effect from January 1, 2022. "If the tax is not reversed then the impact will be huge with job loss to 15 lakh people, including those engaged in ancillary industry and closure of one lakh small units. A lot of units will revert to the informal sector," Mitra said.

He accused the Centre of not discussing the issue in the GST council before announcing the hike in tax.

Mitra, who is the former finance minister of the state, said that at a time when wholesale inflation in the country is already 14 per cent, the additional burden of seven per cent tax on textile will push it up and cause loss of job. The sector engages 39 million people.