Scattered protests by traders in retail, textiles and other affected sectors, across India, marked day one of GST rollout
Scattered protests and strikes greeted the rollout of what is being called India’s biggest tax reform — the Goods and Services Tax — on day-one on Saturday. Across the country, some of the trade unions and those affected demonstrated against the new regime on the grounds that the slabs on certain categories are either ‘excessive’ or ‘complicated’.
In Modi’s home state...
A majority of cloth shops in Gujarat remained shut on Saturday while those who kept it open said they did not carry out any business transaction.
“There is no bandh call... most shops remained shut on their own in protest. There is no business as no merchant has acquired GST number yet,” Gaurang Bhagat, president of Maskati Kapad Mahajan, an association of cloth merchants in Ahmedabad, told PTI.
“Not that we are against GST. What we are saying is that government should listen to our concerns and address it properly,” said Bhagat adding that there are around 2.5-3 lakh cloth merchants in the state who will suffer losses due to the ongoing protest.
Ahmedabad’s kite manufacturers also protested against GST by taking out a rally. They said kite manufacturing being a cottage industry, imposing the new Goods and Services Tax on them will adversely affect small seasonal earnings made by local manufacturers.
Kollywood shutdown
About 950 theatres or 1,060 screens across Tamil Nadu will remain shut from Monday, following the theatre owners’ decision to go on an indefinite strike in protest against the imposition of GST above 30 per cent local body tax.
With confusion prevailing over ticket pricing, many theatres, including multiplexes, have withheld advance online and offline bookings for shows from Monday.
The GST Council has fixed the tax rate for movie tickets under two categories – 28 percent for tickets costing over Rs 100 and 18 percent for tickets priced below Rs 100.
“With the state government’s decision to levy local body tax along with the GST, the industry will not be able to survive such a huge taxation of 58 percent,” said Tamil Nadu Theatre Owners Association joint secretary S Sridhar.
Didi-Left tango
Business in Kolkata downed shutters on Saturday demanding partial or total rollback of GST in certain categories. The usual scene of trucks offloading goods, commercial vehicles lining up the main carriageway and labourers ferrying merchandise in the wholesale markets of Posta and Burrabzar was absent.
With both the ruling and opposition fronts in the state — Mamata-led Trinamool and the Left Front — determined to disprove Modi government’s implementation of the GST, their trade unions also spoke on similar lines.
Mahesh Kumar Singhania, chairman of West Bengal Federation of Trade Association, called the strike a major success with almost the entire trading community joining it.
MP markets deserted
Wholesale markets across Madhya Pradesh saw a thin footfalls on Saturday following confusion over the duty structure under the goods and services tax (GST) regime. “The wholesales traders and customers in Madhya Pradesh are confused over GST as they don’t have any knowledge on GST levies on different goods,” Ahilya Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Ramesh Khandelwal said.
Protests in Kashmir
Most of the shops and other business establishments were shut across Kashmir on Saturday following a call by Kashmir Traders and Manufacturers (KTMF). The traders and the opposition parties feared the new tax regime would lead to erosion of the special status of J&K. Restrictions under Section 144 of CrPC has been imposed in Valley as a precautionary measure.
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 "Women protest GST")
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