Indefinite textile strike withdrawn temporarily, shops, markets across Gujarat opened from today

Surat:

After the ‘temporary’ withdrawal of the indefinite strike of the textile Industry, which has caused an estimated loss of over Rs 50 thousand crore, the markets and shops across the country including Gujarat and its textile hub city of Surat reopened today.

However the strike has not been ended for good and it has only been given a break till August 5 to see the government’s action on the assurances given during a recent meeting between the representatives of textile industry and the union government (Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, MoS Finance Arjunram Meghwal and Revenue Secretary Hansmukh Adhia).

Textile Bachao Sangarsh Samiti of Surat, the outfit which led the indefinite strike since July 1 the day of implementation of GST and protest prior to that of the textile industry in this textile hub city of South Gujarat Tarachand Kasat and its core committee member Dev Kishan Mangani today informed.

‘The textile markets across the country including those in Surat have been opened from today. ‘We have again demanded either keeping only yarn under the GST ambit or deferring the current structure of tax till April 1 ,2019 to give us enough time to be prepared for it as our main two points which would be referred to the GST council and the government would revert to us by August 5,’ Kasat said.

He said that the good thing was that during the meeting a positive discussion about our 12 point demands regarding simplification process was held. This points include issues regarding existing stock till June 30, tax on job work etc.

Kasat did not rule out the possibility of a second round of strike after August 5, if the government did not show positive response.

Mangani said that a group of textile merchants were not willing to end the strike even temporarily.

Desh Gujarat