Gram Seva Sangh writes letter to PM Modi over their call for protest on July 1 against GST on handmade sector

Bengaluru, June 29 (KNN) Gram Seva Sangh has written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi informing about the agitation that the sangh is planning to hold against Goods & Services Tax (GST) levied on handmade sector.

Gram Seva Sangh is a group of like-minded individuals willing to participate in dialogues and activities that intend to bridge the widening gap that exists between the cities and villages.

“Your Government has announced the First of July 2018, as GST Celebration Day. We have no problem whatsoever with the policy of obtaining better tax revenue from the industrial sector. In fact, we would have joined you in the celebration, had you not continued to collect Goods and Services tax (GST) from the handmade sector,” Sangh wrote in the letter.

Recalling the agitation that happened all over India, spearheaded by Gram Seva Sangh, demanding zero GST on all handmade products, Gram Seva Sangh’s letter said, “Your finance minister, as the chairperson of the GST council, had announced that twenty-nine handmade products shall be made zero taxed, as a consequence of the agitation. It is now nearly four months since that announcement. But the new policy has been quietly forgotten.”

Meanwhile the rural sector is languishing. Rural productivity has either collapsed, like in the case of handloom and handicraft sectors, or is in a state of disarray, like in the case of agriculture sector. Apart from the burden of tax, it is the burden of the tax regime that is killing the handmade sector, the letter said.

“The rural producer is, as you know, either illiterate or semiliterate. She/he, apart from being unable to pay the tax, is unable to cope with the regime, the language of the regime and the complex procedures of the computerized system. They are unable to transport their goods, unable to sell their produce across state borders. They are being harassed by officialdom. After all this discomfort caused to the rural poor, the tax revenue that the state gets from these sectors is also negligible. Is this not insensitive Sir?,” said the letter.

Under the situation we are left with no option but to restart the agitation. We have decided to call the new face of the agitation as #HeyRam!, the Sangh letter said.

We shall observe the GST Day as a day of Sathyagraha against the imposition of GST on the Handmade. There is going to be a protest rally on 1st July 2018, in front of the Townhall at Bengaluru, the Gram Seva Sangh letter noted.

However, the Sangh has been saying that so far, this has remained only an announcement without any clarity or action. (KNN Bureau)