Traders claim they are confused or unaware about GST
On a rainy July evening in the busy and sprawling Surat Textile Market, Rangnath Sarda received a call from a client, a distributor in Tamil Nadu, to discuss billing details under the new GST regime. Since Sarda did not have a Goods and Services Tax (GST) number, his client would have to figure out how to bill him, transport the goods and pay agents’ commissions.
Business owners across thousands of Surat’s small-scale trading, weaving and dyeing units, which together churn out around 40 million metres of fabric each day, were asking and answering similar questions up and down their supply chains.
Ever since the Government of India introduced the GST regime on July 1, 2017, with the aim of creating a one-tax, one-market nation, Surat’s textile traders have been up in arms–they say GST has struck the death knell for their informal business channels that work largely on cash and afford tiny profit margins. (economy news)
The traders fear that GST, with its emphasis on formalising businesses by making them register for a GST number–thereby introducing transparency and widening the tax net–will lead to business going to larger, organised traders. They also believe it will increase paperwork and make it difficult to maintain accounting books without hiring accountants, an additional burden for cash-strapped businesses that work on thin profit margins.
Sarda said he had applied for a GST number, grudgingly. With Ganesh Chaturthi round the corner, the festive season would continue well into October and November with Durga Puja, Diwali and Chhath. “Where is the time to protest? We stand to lose business,” Sarda told IndiaSpend, adding that the government was well aware that traders would be in a bind.....(READ MORE)
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