The five percent on raw material will be charged by the yarn supplier to the weaver then on services like warping and twisting there is an 18 percent tax.On the finished sari, five per cent will have to be charged during the sale.Banaras is literally at standstill because the weavers’ working capital for higher yarn cost is near impossible to manage and orders are not getting fulfilled hence there is a problem of circulation of money.There is a supply chain in place in most areas where either credit is extended by the middleman of the bigger middleman and once the weaver has finished weaving he is given his weaving fees, which is often a pittance. With no formal schooling most weavers have not even completed middle school and also belong to lower middle class making them incompetent run the GST process and to mention HSN numbers etc in the invoices.com.I have myself paid an extra five percent tax on a Co-optex saree yesterday. As it is the younger generations in the weaver families do not want to continue weaving in want of greener pastures. Sarees in Banaras move from hand to hand from the actual weaver to the final shopkeeper - no formal invoicing happens at any stage expect when sold in retail, feels Nishant. China Easy-clean washing Polyester Company Social media sector leaders like Suneeta Mishra and Susmita Misra who run the Facebook page Magic of Sarees say that "weaving is the second largest occupation of the country can’t be emphasized enough. So the overall impact is 28 per cent but the customer will see only five per cent as a line item on the invoice or bill.
This entails many participants whose services are not very well defined in the process or the GST list of services.If agriculture and crafts sector with handloom being its largest chunk, are the backbone of the economy, then surely the crafts sector is taking the biggest punch with GST.Nishant Malhotra of the Weaver Story that works on reviving designs and weaves. Considering crafts is the largest sector after agriculture, employing a whopping 49 million artisans, the GST is poised to strike its death knell – both literally and figuratively. The much hyped Gandhinagar meet of textiles and handwoven turned out to be a damp squib according to some who participated hoping it would be a business to consumer opportunity but was only a business to business one with no direct impact but in the realm of the"possibility". In our little way with 20000 members we are working on creating a demand by highlighting specific textile traditions from different regions. While Tamil Nadu is the one state where the cooperative movement is very strong, and can allegedly bring down the government, there seems to be anger in sectors like Kanchipuram and Arini for it is felt that industry needs have not been looked into. "The new GST rates on yarn, services like twisting and warping and then GST on the finished product will be prohibitive for production and working capital management of the weavers with input costs going up by almost 23 percent.
