A quick assessment of first 9 days under GST

The first nine days of the Goods and Services Tax has been a mixed bag for industry: General optimism about the eventual gains from the reforms, some efficiency gains and worries about the transition, particular in industries which have scattered, unorganised sections in the value chain.

GST has meant different things to different trades. In traditional industrial hubs like Bareilly where small and micro enterprises abound, entrepreneurs are looking for accountants to help them comply with GST on zari work and kite making, with some fearing that information about their wealth may leak to local goons.

In India’s biggest knitwear hub of Tirupur, which boasts of annual exports of Rs 25,000 crore, foreign buyers are asking for price cuts after GST but local suppliers say input costs would rise. Some even fear imports would become cheaper. The most fierce opposition is from the textiles trade in Gujarat, where traders have refused to register with GST authorities and clashed with police during protests. But in Malegaon, the textiles trade is remarkably silent and playing a wait-and-watch game although it is as upset with GST as the agitating traders of Surat.


For lorry drivers, it is an end to harassment at checkposts on state borders, but the staff of up to 150 at these posts has to be redeployed, while locals who sold tea, snacks and cigarettes at chokepoints on highways have lost business. ET reporters logged in to industrial hubs to get a feel of the GST rollout.