The informal mechanism of textile trade in Varanasi often means that traders pay GST on goods they have sold on credit.
“SARKAR NE TOH VYAPAARIYON KO MUNSHI bana diya hai” (the government has turned traders into accountants), quips Jagdish Shah, sitting in his multistorey office in Chowk, Varanasi’s busiest market.
It is an early November evening, and the first anniversary of demonetisation is only a few days away. Shah, who is among a handful of Varanasi’s big textile traders, speaks of the impact of the Union government’s two major economic decisions of the past one year— demonetisation and Goods and Services Tax (GST)—on the business community in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s parliamentary constituency. His comment, made partly in a tone of resignation, is a specific reference to the impact of GST on textile traders in Varanasi, which is a large group comprising, by some accounts, nearly half a million people involved directly and indirectly. He explains how textile traders, who were so far outside the purview of Central taxes and not very conversant with the requirements of keeping detailed formal accounts with the government because of the informal nature of their business, are now caught up in the elaborate web of filing GST returns.
This story is from the November 24, 2017 edition of FRONTLINE.
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This story is from the November 24, 2017 edition of FRONTLINE.
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