Say they were not given enough time to prepare for GST rollout; demand exemption of fabric Over 50,000 traders in Ahmedabad have geared up for a nationwide three-day strike against the manner of roll out of Goods and Service Tax (GST) in the country from Tuesday. They have demanded that fabric be totally exempted from GST. Their contention is that traders have not been given enough time to equip themselves to comply with GST regulations. Traders will observe a black day on June 30 by wearing black bands and waiving black flags. They say that they are not opposing GST per se but are against the manner in which it is coming into force. They are angry by the fact that the government did not involve them in decision making. “If the government wants to implement Jan Dhan scheme, it contacts us. If it wants to take digitisation initiatives, we participate in these programmes. But when it comes to levying tax, the government does not even undertake a dialogue with us,” said Gaurang Bhagat, president of Maskati Mahajan, a 111-year old body of textile traders in the city. Players say that the government announced GST on fabric on June 3, four weeks ahead of the roll out of GST, which is not enough for traders to acquaint themselves with its provisions. The fact that there is no tax on fabric has aggravated the situation. “We need at least 6-12 months to come to terms with the new regime,” said Bhagat. Traders in Surat have already taken a lead in the protest. They had organised a strike on June 24 as well. Over 65,000 traders are expected to participate in the nationwide strike. Depending upon the response from the government after the strike, they will decide whether to go on an indefinite strike from July 1. IT infra hurdle Kirit Patel, president of Panchkuwa Kapad Mahajan told DNA that small traders will not be able to comply with the GST regulations. “Thousands of traders operate from smaller cities and town. IT infrastructure is not robust there. Buying computer hardware and hiring experts to file returns means increase in the cost of operations. Either their products will become costlier, or business unviable. In such a scenario, many will go out of business,” he warned.

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