Haryana plywood units to go on indefinite strike against GST

Yamunanagar plywood units contribute about 40 per cent of total plywood production in the country. The manufacturers claim that annual turnover of all the plywood units is around Rs 1,200 crore on paper and annual collection of tax from Yamunanagar’s plywood industry is around Rs 117 crore.

But after the implementation of GST the plywood industrialists will have to reveal their actual income and expenditure following which the annual turnover will cross Rs 5,000 crore on paper, whereas the tax collection will jump around Rs 1,400 crore, the sources said.

Chawla, however, skipped the question about tax evasion by plywood manufacturers. “Tax evasion is more likely when taxes are higher. If the government will impose 28 per cent GST, the consumer will have to pay 40 per cent more. This will also encourage tax evasion even more.”

Members of the plywood association have already taken up the issue with Union finance minister Arun Jaitley and Haryana finance minister Capt Abhimanyu and demanded GST on plywood should be brought down to 18 per cent but to no avail.

 

  

“Now, we have decided to shut our units as we cannot run our factories if the government does not bring GST down to 18 per cent,” said Narendra Sethi, owner of a plywood factory.

Before the GST implementation, Yamunanagar units were producing more than 300 truckloads of plywood in 24 hours but after July 1 the production has fallen to below 100 truckloads, creating insecurity among workers.

“We will not be able to do anything if the plywood production does not resume. This is going to affect thousands of workers in plywood units here,” said Brij Lal, an electrician with a Yamunanagar unit.

Source::: India Today, dated 14/07/2017