RSS Affiliate Urges Sitharaman To Keep GST Under 5% For Beedi Industry

The Swadeshi Jagran Manch or SJM requested the Centre on Tuesday to keep the GST on plastic waste and beedi production under the 5% slab.

In a letter to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman ahead of a meeting of the GST Council, the SJM, an affiliate of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, said reducing the current rate of 18% Goods and Services Tax or GST on plastic waste and 28% on beedi production will help protect and promote employment in the two sectors with better welfare of the workers.

A reduction in the GST rates in the two sectors will also help achieve the objective of reducing environmental pollution under Swachh Bharat, it added.

The GST Council is set to hold a two-day meeting starting Wednesday. The meeting, to be chaired by Sitharaman, will be attended by ministers from all the states. It will discuss the Centre's 'next-gen' GST-reforms proposal of having just two tax rates of 5% and 18% by moving products from the current 12% and 28% slabs to lower the rates.

Submitting suggestions on behalf of the SJM, its national co-convenor Ashwani Mahajan noted in his letter to Sitharaman that the imposition of the GST at 28%, the 'highest', on beedi production has dealt a blow to 'employment' in the sector, 'especially in the registered sector of beedi manufacturing'.

This has caused 'greater hardships' to the workers in the unregistered beedi production units as they are deprived of many social security or welfare benefits provided by both the Centre and states, he said.

"We humbly request you to keep beedis under the 5% category to provide relief to this cottage industry which provides employment to a large number of beedi rollers, Tendu leave collectors and labourers engaged in distribution and retail," Mahajan said.

In the past, a very small amount of central excise duty was levied on beedis by the Centre, he said, adding that even the sales tax was not levied by many states, keeping the interests of beedi workers in mind.

Seeking a reduction in the GST rates on plastic waste, Mahajan said the current 18% tax levied on the sector has the 'potential' to reduce the incentive that rag pickers deserve for their work.

"It is a known fact that crores of small rag pickers are engaged in (collecting) plastic waste from different sources and then the same is segregated and then recycled. These rag pickers belong to the bottom-most category of our population in terms of income, consumption and living standards," he said.

"It is humbly requested to keep plastic waste under the 5% category of GST," Mahajan said, adding that only 5% GST was imposed on plastic waste before it was increased to 18%.