Abstract
GST reform in India has completely changed the perspective of indirect tax system bringing
majority of the taxes on goods and services levied on traders, manufactures and sale and
consumption of goods and services into single tax umbrella. Ultimate purpose of integrating
various indirect taxes into single tax domain under the regime of GST is to provide transparency
and ease to users and support to the growth of Indian economy. Majority of the suppliers or
retailers still display their unwillingness to get registered for GST to avoid burden of new rules
and additional expenses of accounting as per the GST rules. Small level traders, manufacturers
and wholesalers do not seem to be happy with the GST as they feel tax rates are higher and thus
don’t willing to comply with GST. It has also been reported that small to medium level traders
still remain confused about migration process from earlier tax system to GST and billing. There
is uncertainty or low clarity on input tax credit among retailers or traders in the textile industry.
The current overall impact of GST on Indian textile industry has displayed negative responses
from traders however it creates a need for more involvement and association between the Indian
government and the textile industry to find out actions or measures that could be taken to create
positivity towards GST among traders. This study demonstrates impacts of GST on Indian textile
industry adopting qualitative approach. Investigation has been made using in-depth interviews
from traders and customers to find out impacts of GST implementation in the industry. Findings
suggest that in earlier months, there were negative impacts of GST in the industry as it has
affected productivity, sales and performance of several business in the industry.
