The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has threatened to launch a nationwide agitation from July 26 in response to a recent hike in taxes on a range of products, including food grains and household items. The traders’ body has also demanded simplification of GST.
CAIT President Praveen Khandelwal said the government and the traders have had many experiences in the last five years, so on the basis of those experiences, it is necessary to streamline the GST tax system to make compliance easy.
According to CAIT, prominent trade leaders of different states of the country have also been invited to Bhopal to decide the outline movement for new GST law.
“The 5 percent tax on a range of food products – which remained tax free so far – and hike in rates on other household items has increased the inflation burden on the public and traders,” said Khandelwal, president of the Confederation of All India Traders, which represents more than 10 million small shopkeepers and wholesalers.
The recently concluded 47th GST Council Meet, headed by Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman, decided on levying the Goods and Service Tax (GST) on a number of items like pre-packed food, labelled food items like atta, paneer and curd, hotel rooms under Rs 1,000 among others.
The changes and new GST rates are set to kick in from today, July 18, and people must know about them as it would directly affect their pockets. From daily essential items like milk, rice, curd to even the fee for cheques issued by banks will now be under the purview of GST.
A finance ministry statement on Monday said the tax measures would include extending a 5% tax al-ready imposed on branded food items such as rice, wheat, flour, pulses and dairy products to un-branded items sold in packages of up to 25 kilograms or 25 litres.
Analysts have said that higher taxes would put an additional burden on households that already face surging food and energy prices.
India’s consumer price inflation hit an eight-year high of 7.79 percent in April and remained above 7 percent in May and June.
