Surat: Nine power loom weavers, including president of Federation of Gujarat Weavers Association (FOGWA), were detained by city police for holding a demonstration at Surat International Exhibition and Convention Centre (SIECC) at Sarsana where Union minister of textiles Smriti Irani was present to inaugurate Source India Textile Exhibition on Friday.Power loom weavers gathered at the entrance of the convention hall with black flags and shouted slogans against the Union minister. The weaving community has been demanding refund of unutilized input tax credit for a long time. Despite GST Council approving the refund of ITC credit in the 28th meeting, the central government had come out with a notification stating that the refund will lapse. FOGWA president Ashok Jirawala, who was detained along with eight other power loom sector leaders, told TOI, “Since the Union minister was in Surat, we had asked for prior appointment to discuss the ITC issue. There was no response from her ministry. It seems the Government of India has made up its mind to harass the power loom sector. We are not begging, but demanding our rightful share from the government, which we had paid on input services. The government owes us Rs500 crore.”From last few days, leaders of power loom sector have been running a campaign in the city urging weavers not to file Goods and Services Tax return to protest against the government’s stand on ITC. Banners have come up in various industrial societies across the city on this.Mayur Golwala, leader of power loom weavers, said, “Lapse of accumulated ITC credit will have a cascading effect on power loom sector. The unit owners operating more than 100 machines will have to face losses to the tune of Rs7 lakh, while those having less than 20 machines will suffer Rs2 lakh losses.”Pandesara Weavers Society president Ashish Gujarati said, “Even Gujarat high court has given interim stay on retrospective amendment of change in refund provision by the government for inverted duty structure on inputs and not on input services. This clarifies further that the demand of weavers for refund of unutilized credit is genuine.”

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