Jalandhar MP Sushil Kumar Rinku meets Union FinMin Nirmala Sitharaman

Jalandhar, December 18

Jalandhar’s sports industry, which is affected by the increased GST rate, may soon get a relief as Lok Sabha Member from the Jalandhar parliamentary constituency Sushil Kumar Rinku today handed over a list of sports products, along with its HSN codes, to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to reduce the GST rate on these items from 18 per cent to 5 per cent.

Wrong decision

MP Sushil Kumar Rinku said increasing GST on these products was a wrong decision because it would affect the industry on one hand and people belonging to the poor class on the other.

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The MP said earlier the GST rate on these products used to be 5 per cent. Later, the Central Government unilaterally increased it to 18 per cent. It created a crisis for Jalandhar sports industry, which is famous across the country.

He said the need of the hour was to justify the GST rate to save the sports industry. Hence, he submitted the list of related products to the Union Finance Minister.

MP Sushil Kumar Rinku met Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in September also. At that time, he raised the problems of Jalandhar’s sports industry and requested her to reduce the GST rate on the sports goods. Now, following that meeting, Sushil Rinku has submitted the HSN codes of about 18 products to the Finance Minister, requesting her to reduce the GST rate from 18 per cent to 5 per cent. These include almost all types of sports products used by common people.

MP Rinku said most of the sports products were used in schools by children and poor people. They had been directly affected by the increase in GST rates.

Rinku said increasing GST on these products was a wrong decision because it would affect the industry on one hand and people belonging to the poor class on the other.

Rinku said: “Our industry is already troubled due to cheap goods coming from China. Now with an increase in GST rate by the government, this challenge will increase further. How will our industry compete with the Chinese industry? Hence, reducing GST rates is necessary for the industry. Common man will also benefit from it.”

The MP expressed hope that positive results will emerge in this direction soon.