Abolish trade licence to let small traders run business: Association

Bengaluru: The Karnataka Hosiery and Garment Association (KHGA) submitted a pre-budget memorandum to state Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, which highlights the issues faced by them.

Speaking to The Hans India, The Chairman of Taxation Committee and Ex-President, KHGA, Sajjan Raj Mehta stated, we are facing a lot of issues which needs to be brought to CM Bommai's notice as these are roadblocks in the path of development and adaptation of technology. We therefore to highlight the issues and expect CM's full support. We have submitted a memorandum from our association."

In the memorandum, We have stated on the issues such as the prices of petrol and diesel are rising constantly and VAT charged by the state government is increasing costs on all products as this increases cost of transportation and raw materials leading to higher cost to our sector. We therefore request the Government to push the matter in GST Council for its inclusion in GST. Alternatively, we request for reduction of State VAT on petrol and diesel, Mehta said.

Secondly, Chickpet is the most important business hub and we endeavour to contribute taxes in the interest of the state. However, the infrastructure in this area is not able to cope up to the requirements and hence it is causing a lot of difficulty to traders as customers are unwilling to come to Chickpet due to lack of proper infrastructure facility.

He said, GST rate hike for textile and readymade garment has been deferred as of now. We request Government to remove the hike, so that the industry can continue to steer the growth in Indian economy and provide ample employment opportunities. Alternatively, we request to remove the anomaly completely by bringing textile and readymade garments under a single rate of 5% on all textile and readymade garment which would enhance ease of doing business for the trade. This will enhance Make in India and also lead to many fold increase in employment which has been a key area of concern for the economy.

The GST Annual return filing - Though GST Audit and certification has been removed, the requirement of annual return is such that a businessman is unable to file it independently. It results into higher professional payments. He said, "We requested CM Bommai to take up the matter in GST Council exempting businesses with annual turnover of upto 10 crores for filing annual return."

"Also requested is to scrap professional tax as we are already under lot of stress with high GST rate of 18% on services taken. This adds as an additional burden on small businesses. Alternatively, a two-year relief may be provided in professional tax and shops and establishments act to small traders with turnover of up to Rs 10 crore. To enhance the requirement of E-way bill to Rs 1 lakh from current Rs 50,000 to help small traders survive the large number of compliances. This step is already taken in by various state government including Delhi for movement within the state. We seek the state government's full support, which will help genuine traders to tide over this difficult phrase," said Sajjan Raj Mehta.

He added: 'In our plea, we have mentioned to CM Bommai to nominate our association to have our representation in Textile Committee, so that we can put forth our points for the betterment at the grass root level of the textile industry. Also the abolition of BBMP Trade licence, which will help small and medium-sized traders to run their businesses with higher efficiency and lesser compliance'.