With Diwali greetings, traders send demands to PM, CM

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, October 22

Adopting a unique way to apprise the Prime Minister and the Chief Minister of their demands, members of the Khel Udyog Sangh on Tuesday sent them parcels of sports goods wishing a Happy Diwali.

With their greetings, they also demanded that the sports goods must come under the 5 per cent slab of the GST.

Along with the parcel, a memorandum has also been attached, which reads “Kindly find a parcel of sports goods herewith, which are irrationally placed in the GST slab of 18 per cent and due to their low price with labour intensive production parameters, the said products are witnessing a drastic reduction in demand. It has almost annihilated the manufacturers, henceforth employment to the weaker section is depleting since the implementation of the GST”.

The memorandum further reads, “It is requested to rationalise all sports goods in the 5 per cent slab of the GST and rectification of raw material used for manufacturing sports goods to be kept under the slab of 12 per cent. We introspect that it is the only hope to revive the industry.”

Ravinder Dhir, a member of the Khel Udyog Sangh said, “We have been raising our demands for long, but to no avail. The industry is suffering a lot. There is no one to look after it.”