Surat weavers to meet FM seeking abolition of Cenvat

Representatives of the Federation Of Gujarat Weavers' Associations will meet Union finance minister P Chidambaram and Union textiles minister Shankarsinh Vaghela demanding abolition of Cenvat (central value-added tax).

This decision was taken at a meeting of the steering committee of the federation at the Sachin Industrial Association on Tuesday.

The committee also discussed means to curb the menace of vanishing textile firms and decided to form a core committee to hold talks with the government regarding Cenvat.

The federation president Manu Patel, said, "Cenvat has not resulted in any additional financial benefit for the government. Instead, it has only increased problems for weavers. We have decided to form a core committee, which will chart out the disadvantages of Cenvat and also the benefits weavers would have if it was done away with. The committee will meet Chidambaram and Vaghela and demand abolition of Cenvat in the interest of the powerloom industry at the earliest," Patel said.

The issue of vanishing textile firms was also discussed in the meeting. Patel said, "A major reason behind the increasing instances of firms going defunct and defaulting on their payments is overproduction. There is no demand for grey in the market, so weavers supply grey to just about anyone, even if it means taking a lot of risk. The cheats are taking maximum advantage of this situation."

"In the interest of the powerloom industry, we have appealed weavers to observe a voluntary bandh. This will help reduce production and hopefully prevent more weavers from falling prey to the cheats," Patel said.

The committee "blacklisted" five textile markets.

Bipin Ramani, a member of the steering committee, said, "Fifty textile firms have vanished in the past six to seven months. A majority of them were operating from Millennium Textile Market, Silk City Market, Hariom Market, Shivshakti Textile Market and Kohinoor Market."

"We have asked weavers to be careful in dealing with new traders who open shops in these markets. We have also asked associations of these five textile markets to check the antecedents of new traders before renting shops to them," Ramani said.

The police department was once again the target of attack during the meeting.

Manu Patel said, "It is a known fact that the police department has not initiated any steps against owners of vanishing firms. This has given a free hand to the cheats and has in a way encouraged them. To protest inaction of police, we have decided to organise a rally and a public meeting."

The date of the protest rally has not been decided yet.

"Another meeting of the federation steering committee will be held by the end of this week, which will decide the date," Patel said.

Over 50 textile firms have vanished from Surat since Diwali. Weavers alone are estimated to have lost about Rs 75 crore to Rs 80 crore because of this.