Facing difficulties owing to the rise in cost of production, plywood manufacturers who recently hiked the rates of plywood, plyboard and flush doors by 6% are now demanding that the Union government should reduce GST on their products. The businessmen are of the view that the GST should be reduced from 18% to 12% and they are even open to claim no refunds of GST if the rate is reduced to 6%.
Sohal who was recently appointed as the head of the dispute settlement committee of the All India Plywood Manufacturers Association claimed that market committee fees are still being levied on plywood raw material and products despite being abolished by the state government.
He said, “We are already struggling due to rising costs and that is the reason we were forced to hike the rates of our finished products by 6% although our cost of production has risen by more than 10 %. On the other hand we are still being charged market committee fees all over Punjab which is totally against the rules, therefore we request state government to issue a notification in this regard at the earliest”