Federation of Retail Traders Welfare Association ( FRTWA) and other associations have urged Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to roll back proposed GST hike from 5 percent to 12 percent on garment, fabric and footwear products.
They have argued that such a substantial rise will lead to massive job loss in the country especially when there has been a surge in COVID 19 and Omicron variant cases.
"Retail sector in India gives second largest employment after agriculture and after such high rate of GST the prices of products will rise from 15/20 percent. This will directly affect consumers of lower and middle class section of society," said FRTWA President Viren Shah.
"Our country is already facing huge problems of pandemic and in middle of such crisis to increase GST from 5 percent to 12 percent will be Death Knell for Garment and footwear industry" warned Shah.
"We hope GST council will take serious note on this and roll back the proposed rike GST to avoid unrest in the trading communities at large," he said.
