A PLEA FOR RECONSIDERATION OF GST RATES FOR THE CRAFTS SECTOR

Representation on behalf of the handloom and handcrafting sector on Goods and Sales Tax Overall Approach: Factors that make this sector of crucial importance in India A country remains poor in wealth, both materially and intellectually, if it does not develop its handicrafts and its industries and lives a lazy parasitic life by importing all the manufactured articles from outside. There was a time when we manufactured almost all we wanted. The process is now reversed, and we are dependent on the outside world for most manufactured goods. The past year brought forth a remarkable awakening of the Swadesh spirit. It has therefore become necessary to define Swadeshi goods. But in giving a definition care has to be taken not to make the definition as narrow as to make manufacture all but impossible or so wide as to become farcical and Swadeshi only in name. We do not want to follow the frog-in-the-well policy, not in seeming to be international, lose our roots. We cannot be international, if we lose our individuality, i.e., nationality

"Mahatma Gandhi Young India 20.8.1931"

  The Independence of India was fought on Mahatma Gandhi’s call of for Swaraj Swadeshi, Swawlamban. In a detailed study of the wording of items on the GST list the word “Hand” is totally absent. It has taken note of a mechanised world and completely eliminated the very concept of handwork, handicraft, hand skills, handloom. During...