THE Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has sent a letter to the Chief Ministers and Finance Ministers of all the States demanding the 5 per cent Goods and Services Tax (GST) imposed on unbranded food grains and other items from July 18 to be withdrawn.

“For this the GST Council should call an emergency meeting immediately to take necessary decision,” CAIT said.

About 85 per cent of the people of the country use unbranded goods and the decision to impose tax has been opposed all over the country, therefore, it is necessary to withdraw the tax to save the general public from unnecessary burden of extra taxation and the traders from additional tax compliances, CAIT said.

CAIT National President BC Bhartia and Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal both said, “Currently no loose items or goods are being sold in the smallest town or village of the country. Even the smallest items up to 100 grams are sold in packing. Therefore it is redundant to say that loose goods are exempted from this tax. There is no use for this exemption”.

Both the trade leaders also said that goods above 25 kg have been exempted from GST.

Small traders and general public of the country are also not benefited by this exemption because generally people buy goods in packs ranging from 1 kg to maximum 10 kg and they will have to pay 5% GST on them. In this era of high inflation, this tax will be a double whammy on the public, CAIT added.

Bhartia and Khandelwal both termed the uproar over this issue in Parliament by the opposition parties as a drama and said that when the issue came up in the GST Council, did the Finance Ministers of the States ruled by the opposition parties unaware what decision they were going to take.

The Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman herself has made it clear publicly that this decision was taken unanimously in the GST Council.