Even as the GST for job working units in textiles has been cut from the proposed 18 per cent to 5 per cent , apparel, a major segment in the textile value chain, has been left out of the reduction. Garment exporters in Tirupur are now urging the government to levy only 5 per cent GST for job working units in the apparel segment.
Only services which can be classified as ‘job work in relation to yarn and fabrics of textiles’ is eligible for the reduced rate of 5per cent. “This negative step would cause huge hardship to several micro industries in textile clusters like Tirupur,” Raja M Shanmugham, president, Tirupur Exporters’ Association (TEA) said. In textile clusters like Tirupur a host operations including garment printing, embroidery, garment washing, ironing and packing are carried out by micro industries on a job work basis only, he said. “Some of these processes such as checking, ironing and packing and button fixing are actually carried out by people who take work to their home for job work,” he said in a representation to union finance minister Arun Jaitley. “As the processes are only of B2B (business-to-business) nature and since the final product garments is falling under 5 per cent slab, levying 18 per cent on job work will create an inverted duty scenario disturbing the seamless credit flow thereby defeating the very objective behind GST,” Shanmugham said.
Since these job workers fall in the middle of the textile manufacturing value chain where the credit would ultimately be passed on to the final manufacturer, there would be no revenue implication if the rates are kept at 5 per cent, he said. The reduction in GST rate on job work will not be fully served if tiny and micro industries above are excluded from the benefit of rate reduction, the TEA president said.
– Apparel and Textile News, Apparel Talk, Indian Apparel
