Industry protests GST slabs on sewing machine parts

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, October 13

The sewing machine industry today remained shut to protest the Goods and Services Tax (GST) slabs on sewing machine and its parts.

Manufactures gathered outside the GST Commissionerate office at Rishi Nagar and protested the tax rate on sewing machine and its parts. Sewing machine industry throughout the country remained shut and memorandums were submitted to the commissioners concerned.

Earlier, there was no clarity regarding the rate of the GST on sewing machine as a whole and its parts. Now, the government has fixed 12 per cent as the tax rate on the sewing machine and 18 per cent to 28 per cent on its parts.

“Earlier, the GST on sewing machine was 12 per cent, but the Act did not mention ‘sewing machine parts’. This was creating a lot of trouble for the small manufactures and traders. We had asked the government to clear the air regarding this, but the government has created different slabs for different sewing machine parts, which have further created problems for us as the slab is too high for the sewing machine industry,” said Varinder Rakheja, ex-president of the Sewing Machine Dealers and Assemblers’ Association.

Association president Gurdev Singh said the new slabs were shocking. “Sewing machine is generally bought by people to earn their livelihood. It should have been kept out of the purview of the GST,” said Singh.

Further, DS Dhiman, chairman of the association said as per the gazette, the GST rate for sewing machine was 12 per cent and had given a shock by imposing different slabs for its parts. The industry will again approach the officials on Monday and plan their further action.