KTR asks Centre to withdraw 5% GST on handlooms

Rajanna-Sircilla: The State IT and Industry Minister KT Rama Rao demanded that the Union government to withdraw the five per cent Goods and Services Tax (GST) being imposed on handlooms.

KTR said that the BJP government at the Centre was the first government imposing GST on the handloom sector. Giving a call to the people to boycott foreign clothes, Mahatma Gandhi had started the Swadeshi Agitation. However, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who also hails from Gujarat, imposed five per cent GST on handloom products for the first time in the history of the country. Stating that the weaving community was in misery due to the Union government's decision, Rama Rao said the Centre should revoke the tax.

Speaking after unveiling the statue of freedom fighter Konda Laxman Bapuji near Manair river in Sircilla town on the occasion of the latter's 107th birth anniversary on Tuesday, Rama Rao said the State government was requesting the sanctioning of a Mega Textile Park to Sircilla and an Indian Institute of Handlooms Technology to the State for the last eight years. However, there was no response from the Centre.

The Centre was also keeping mum on the State's request to accord national status for the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project and to extend support for the Palamuru-Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Scheme, he said, adding that while Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao had sanctioned one medical college each to all the 33 districts in Telangana, the Prime Minister had failed to sanction a single Navodaya school to Telangana.

BJP state president and local MP, Bandi Sanjay Kumar, too failed to get sanction for a single educational institution to the Karimnagar Parliament constituency, he pointed out, adding that BJP leaders had failed to get funds for development of the Vemulawada temple as well.

Except for provoking the public, especially the youth in the name of religion, the BJP had done nothing for the development of the country, he said, asking the people not to be get carried away by the provocative statements made by the saffron party leaders for their political gains. All sections of the people, right from farmers and toddy tappers to weavers, should also compare and debate on the development brought by the Chief Minister as against that claimed by the Prime Minister, he added.