GST rate cut on man-made yards, zari items to aid apparel exporters: AEPC

The lowering of GST rates on man-made yarns and job works on zari items and accelerated refunds will provide immediate relief to apparel exporters, the Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) said on Sunday.

The GST Council, chaired by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and comprising state counterparts as members, had on Friday last cut rates on 27 items.

These included lowering rates on man-made yarn to 12 per cent from 18 per cent as well as zari job work to 5 per cent from the 12 per cent earlier.

"The changes will give a great relief to the apparel industry for the immediate term as the sector has been facing severe liquidity crunch after the introduction of GST," AEPC Chairman Ashok Rajani said.

AEPC also demanded that the government look into the issue of embedded taxes on exports.

"Since the duty structure remains inverted with fabric at 5 per cent GST, we are hopeful that the embedded taxes arising out of this inverted structure will be refunded to exporters through appropriate mechanisms," Rajani said.