vijaywada after the gold merchants the cloth and textile merchants in the vijayawada and guntur have decided to shut their shops down on thursday in protest against the proposed 2 per cent excise duty on readymade garments they demanded the centre to withdraw the excise duty and continue the optional duty regime president of apparel manufacturers and marketers association amma of andhra pradesh gvs harishchandra said that the centres proposal will have adverse impact on the garment sector which is already in a crippling state due to the fall in demand both in domestic and international markets after agriculture sector garment industry is the one that provides highest employment we are already paying 5 per cent vat to the state now additional 2 per cent tax will push us into a crisis he said he further added that fixing the cut off price point at rs 1000 for levying excise duty will have drastic impact it will be detrimental to the smalltime manufacturers who are planning to upgrade themselves to manufacture quality products the centre should roll back the excise duty on readymade garments he demanded the merchants and traders also said that a rally will be held on the occasion from lenin centre to subcollectors office via besant road president of vijayawada textile merchants welfare association bheema rao said that the textile merchants will also close the shops down to show their solidarity to the cloth traders all the readymade cloth stores in the city will be shut down he said it may be observed here that the gold merchants are on an indefinite strike from march 1 for roll back of 1 per cent excise duty proposed by union finance minister arun jaitley in the union budget tnn published on mar 17 2016 at 0106 pm ist telegram facebook copy link be the first one to comment comment now comments comment now read comment 1 all comments post post find this comment offensive choose your reason below and click on the submit button this will alert our moderators to take actions reasons for reporting foul language defamatory inciting hatred against a certain community out of context spam others report join the community of 2m industry professionals subscribe to our newsletter to get latest insights analysis download etretail app get realtime updates save your favourite articles scan to download app andhra pradesh arun jaitley excise duty union finance homenewscloth traders to shut shop today