The road and infrastructure cess on petrol and diesel has not gone down well with those associated with Surat’s Rs 80,000 crore textile industry. Textile traders say transport costs at every stage, right from bringing the raw material, sending the grey fabric to process houses and sending the finished goods to the market, would become more expensive as petrol and diesel prices have already gone up.

The textile industry in Surat is also disappointed the reverse charge mechanism (RCM) is still in force. The industry blames RCM for the prolonged money circulation cycle and the shortage of finance. In the textile value chain businessmen are required to do cash transactions at various stages, but subject to a limit of Rs 10,000 a day. They have demanded an increase in the limit up to at least Rs 25,000 a day. The textile industry was also pitching for scrapping GST for those units whose turnover is below Rs 5 crores. At present, the limit is Rs 50 lakhs.

Surat is the hub of manmade fabric in the country. There are seven lakh power looms in Surat. The annual turnover of the textile industry in Surat is pegged at around Rs 80,000 crores.