Knitwear products are not going to be benefitted by the tax slabs proposed under Goods and Services Tax (GST) as the present rate of taxation on textile products is much lower.

However, the Tirupur knitwear cluster as a whole can rejoice when the GST bill finally gets implemented since it would ease taxation procedures through synchronisation of excise duty, state Value Added Tax and service tax uniformly across the country. Said S Dhananjayan, a senior member of Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) that rates of taxation for certain products like textiles are only going to scale up under the GST system as present accumulated tax on textile products is in the range of seven to eight percent whereas GST has a cap of 18 per cent.

Pointed out R M Senthil Kumar, a former chairman of ICAI (Tirupur chapter), the transparency in movement of goods would improve as tax payments at various stages could be monitored online under GST which, in turn, reduce the black marketing.

Meanwhile, G R Senthivel, secretary of Tirupur Exporters and Manufacturers Association, feels tax slabs under GST should be brought down from the proposed 18 per cent.