Telangana Minister KTR seeks cancellation of 7% GST hike in textile, handloom sector to ease the burden on workers

The Telangana government on Sunday appealed to the Center to scrap the 7 per cent GST hike on textiles and textile industries. Telangana Industries and IT Minister KT Rama Rao said the Center should reduce the GST on the two sectors which faced adverse impact from the coronavirus pandemic. In his letter to Union Minister Piyush Goyal, KTR appealed to repeal the 7 per cent increase in GST and now the 12 per cent hike.

The Minister said that the GST has been increased from the existing 5 to 12 percent with an increase of 7 percent on the textile and textile sectors. He said that this would only burden lakhs of employees and reduce the income. KTR said the Center should cancel the GST hike keeping in mind the impact of the pandemic and the welfare of workers dependent on the two sectors.

The Minister urged the Center to consider its earlier decision taken in the GST Council meeting on May 18, 2017 that no burden should be imposed on the textile and textile industries. He also appealed to the businessmen of these two sectors to increase the tax-based exemption from Rs 20 lakh to Rs 50 lakh.