Traders Federation opposes GST on unbranded Rice

 Central government should reconsider the imposition of GST on unbranded food products like rice, curd and paneer etc, Tamil Nadu Federation of Merchants Associations President AM Vickramarajah.
Addressing at the Erode District Sweets and Savory Manufacturers Association meeting at Erode on Tuesday, he said that earlier tax was levied only on branded food products. But, now, it was extended to unbranded products including rice. 

We hope that the Chief Minister will not accept the imposition of tax on rice.  He said the PM assured no new tax will be imposed if the GST revenue touched Rs 1 lakh crore per month. But, now, it rose to Rs 1.60 lakh crores. Even then, taxes were hiked, new goods, lodge  rooms of less than Rs 1000 rent were were brought under tax net. Tax has been announced even on non-food items etc. So we are going to meet the central and state finance ministers in this regard. He hoped the CM would  not accept tax on unbranded  rice.  The Supreme Court has said that it is the right of the state governments to impose tax or not. A policy has already been formulated to impose uniform GST all over the nation. 

So, we are going to take legal advice and seek Supreme Court's clarification in this regard. State government should stop levying cess on individual items. Petrol and diesel should be brought under GST to reduce the price of many essential items. Corporate companies like Reliance, Jio Mart, DMart, Flipkart are heavily involved in online trading.  Because of this lakhs of small traders will be affected and the entire business will be destroyed. 

But, Central government is encouraging them. So, the federation  will soon stage a massive stir at Chennai on the issues. The association administrators Sivanesan Ramachandran RK Shanmugavel Udayam P Selvam Lawrence Ramesh Anthony Eugene Balamurugan Sadikpatsa Matheswaran Anandhan Thangadurai R Chinnaswamy Shekhar Rajagopal and Erode District Food Security Designated Officer Dr G Thanga Vignesh and many others were present.