CAIT demands withdrawal of GST on unbranded food grains

Nagpur, July 21

The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has sent a letter to the chief ministers and finance ministers of all the states demanding that the 5 percent GST tax imposed on unbranded food grains and other items from July 18 should be withdrawn and for this the GST Council must call an emergency meeting immediately to take necessary decision.

CAIT has said that 85 percent of the people of the country use unbranded goods and the decision to imposed tax has been opposed all over the country, therefore, it is necessary to withdraw the tax to save the general public from unnecessary burden of extra finance and the traders from extra burden of tax compliances.

CAIT National president BC Bhartia and secretary general Praveen Khandelwal said that currently no loose items or goods are being sold in the smallest town or village of the country, even the smallest items up to 100 grams are sold in packing. Therefore it is redundant to say that loose goods are exempted from this tax. There is no use for this exemption. They also said that goods above 25 kg have been exempted from GST. Small traders and general public of the country are also not benefited by this exemption because generally people buy goods in packs ranging from 1 kg to maximum 10 kg and they will have to pay 5% GST on them. In this era of inflation, this tax will be a double whammy on the public.

Bhartia and Khandelwal termed the uproar over this issue in Parliament by the opposition parties as a drama and said that when the issue came up in the GST Council, did the finance ministers of the states ruled by the opposition parties were unaware what decision they were going to take. The union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman herself has made it clear publicly that this decision was taken unanimously in the GST Council. Then with what face are the opposition parties creating a ruckus? If they are really worried then they should immediately give a letter to convene a meeting of the GST Council and take back the decision in that meeting. They further added that no political party can shy away from its responsibility on this issue. Everyone will have to answer this when the time comes.

Bhartia and Khandelwal said that the finance ministers of all the states have completely disrupted the basic nature of GST in the greed of revenue and presently the GST tax system has become very complex, which is very important to be simplified in the interest of the country.