Textile shops across the coastal districts remained closed on Monday in protest against the imposition of value added tax (VAT) on ‘made up’ clothes as it would hit the trade badly.
Andhra Pradesh Federation of Textile Associations (APFTA) member, B V Narasimha Rao, said 'madeup' clothes or the hand-stitched dresses were mostly supplied by women in smaller groups, who take up the trade as self-employment. A tax on this section would have an adverse impact on them.
States like Odisha, Maharashtra and Rajasthan have no taxes on clothes, while in Andhra Pradesh, former chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy had waived the tax, Rao said.
The traders said they would intensify the agitation if the government failed to withdraw the move of imposing VAT on clothes. Wholesale and retail cloth markets in Vijayawada and Guntur remained closed all through the day, while traders from other centres downed their shutters in protest.