Decision comes after govt assures it will raise issue of lowering tax on works contract in GST Council meeting on August 5
Government contractors, who have been on strike since July 16, have put off their strike till August 5, the Gujarat Contractors Association said on Tuesday. The decision comes a day after top contractors and presidents of district contractors’ associations met in Gandhinagar.
Association president Arvind Patel said that the decision to put off the strike till August 5 was taken unanimously after detailed discussions.
Thousands of government contractors have been on strike since July 16 to protest 18% rate of tax on works contract under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) which, they say, would lead to heavy losses to them as their tax burden would go up by 10 to 12% due to the high GST rate.
“There is no way we can bear this additional tax cost. We are asking the government to either move us to a lower tax slab of 5 or 12%, or to reimburse the additional tax that we would be required to pay,” Patel had told reporters last month.
Incidentally, representatives of Gujarat Contractors Association had also met deputy chief minister Nitin Patel on Monday and discussed the issue with him.
The government assured the contractors that it would raise the issue of lower GST rate on works contracts in the next meeting of GST Council on August 5, and asked the contractors to put off the strike till then.
The association also said that the government has agreed to look into matters related to high royalty duty and other issues.
“Roads and bridges have suffered extensive damage due to heavy rains and flood-like situation in the state. People are facing a lot of problems, and hence the association decided to put off the strike on humanitarian grounds,” a release quoted Arvind Patel as saying. The association also appealed to its members to resume work looking at the situation.
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