GST Hike on Expensive Textiles Raises Concerns for Industry and Consumers

15-Sep-2025 05:40 PM

Ludhiana. The season of marriages (lagnasara) and other auspicious festivals is constantly coming closer. In which there has been a tradition of increasing the purchase and sale of readymade Indian garments.

But this time the government has made these traditional Indian garments expensive. Actually, the rate of GST on garments worth more than 2500 rupees has been increased from 12 percent to 18 percent, due to which its prices will increase significantly. This is likely to have some impact on the business. Usually the price of lehenga, sherwani and sarees remains above 2500 rupees.

The entrepreneurs who generally wait for the lagnasara season and expect good sales of their embroidered clothes, handloom fabrics and festive garments are not very happy this time.

The base of Rs 2500 is considered to be very small because in this time of inflation, the price of garments has already increased a lot and now a retail textile trader says that this step of the government is like imposing a fine on Indian culture. According to the President of Punjab Textile Merchants Association,

hand embroidery is not just a decoration but also the main source of livelihood for thousands of artisans. Now the government has increased the tax on it by considering it as a luxury product.

This will not only affect the domestic business but the export performance is also likely to be affected. Indian industry is already facing difficulties due to the import of winter textile products from China and Bangladesh, while the government's tax policy is likely to increase its problem even more.