Indore (Madhya Pradesh): The decision of GST Council about the imposition of 5% GST on non-branded pulses from July 18 will make prices of the essential commodity shoot up. The Centre must withdraw this decision in favour of the public and daal millers.
Stating this here on Thursday, Suresh Agrawal, president of the All-India Daal Mill Association, said that, recently, at a meeting, the GST Council had taken a decision to propose 5% GST on non-branded pulses (moong, tuar, urad, masoor, gram and so forth). It has been proposed to impose 5% GST on other food items, including coarse grains, on July 18. This is a blow to the micro, small and medium industries of the country. Due to this unfair order of the government, the industries of the country will be destroyed, he said.
Agrawal said that the association had sent a memorandum to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union finance minister Nirmala Sitaraman, apprising the government about the negative results of this decision.
He said that, while implementing GST in 2017, the Prime Minister, himself, had given a clear assurance that all types of pulses and other food items, including essential grains, coarse grains (tuar, moong, urad, masoor, gram and so forth) would be kept out of the purview of GST.
The latest decision of imposing 5% GST on essential food items and all types of pulses will make them expensive for the general public. The government has already imposed 5% GST on registered, branded food items. Now, by imposing 5% GST on non-branded food items, all types of trade in grains will be reduced gradually. In India, 85% of the small-scale industries, traders and businessmen do business in non-branded grains and GST is not applicable on them at present. Adding 5% GST would make 5 crore retail traders of the country gradually go out of business and big companies would have a monopoly on food items, Agrawal said.
In future, the cost of 5% GST on the produce of farmers will also come to farmers in the end. Big companies will accumulate more stock and will make constant efforts to increase prices.
Agrawal said the association had urged the government to keep non-branded pulses (tuar, moong, urad, lentil, gram and so forth) and other essential grains, including coarse grains, out of the GST regime.
