The Union Budget 2018-19 did not look to have cheered different segments of population in Tirupur industrial cluster. The decision to re-introduce taxes on long-term capital gains, increase cess component in the personal income tax, and lack of any references to key issues in the Goods and Services Tax like on the reverse charge mechanism that was bothering the apparel-sector, have been cited as the major disappointments.
“A big opportunity was wasted to permanently set right the legislative lacunae in the GST because the Budget did not mention on any amendments on reverse charge mechanism by which recipient of goods from unregistered supplier have to pay the tax, said S. Dhananjayan, a senior chartered accountant and advisor to many textile bodies.
“Nothing much to cheer about from the Budget as the allocations to the textile sector looked not high enough to settle the ROSL pending claims of apparel segment which as of now is about Rs. 2,500 crore. With made-up articles also now been brought under ROSL, it needed huge capital”, opined Tirupur Exporters Association president Raja Shanmugam.
“The people are choosing equities as better savings opportunity in view of low bank interests”, said R. M. Senthilkumar, former chairman of Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (Tirupur branch).

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