Representational image.
The Central government on Thursday lowered GST rate to 5 per cent from 18 on ethanol meant for blending under the Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) programme.
A few days ago, more than 4,000 textiles wholesale, retail shops and textile producers and merchants dealing with yarn in the district closed shutters as part of a one-day strike called for by the Erode Textile Merchants Association.
The strike was to protest against the increase in GST (goods and services tax) from 5 per cent to 12 per cent.
President of Erode Cloth Merchants Association Kalaiselvan said the textile industry and its allied industries into weaving, dyeing, printing and textile trading are already facing problems of yarn price hike and pollution.
Now, he said, the hike in GST would affect the manufacturing and sale of textile goods.
In order to draw the attention of the Union government to the GST, the textile industry went on strike, the association president said.
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