Industrialists from Coimbatore, the home to wet grinders, have requested tax officials to bring down the goods and services tax (GST) rate on the product to 5 per cent from the current 28.

CODISSIA president V Sundaram said this at a meeting ‘GST Current challenges and Solutions’ held yesterday with tax officials who admitted that the issue had come to their notice.

“Wet grinders serve the same purpose like atta chakki. It may be a luxury in North India but not so in the South. And so its tax rate has to brought down,” Sundaram said.

Small and medium industries had been affected because of GST and some micro industries were on the verge of closure. The officials and the State Government needed to take immediate notice of this, he said. Small scale and large scale compressor producers were on different levels and accordingly the tax rate for farm equipment should be brought down from 28 per cent to 17.5, he added.

The GST format should be the same so that tax payers would not have to spend a lot of time filing forms and could rater concentrate on their business. Sundaram added, “Coimbatore is a city with less tax evasion. The council could consider it as a model city and try changes here, get feedback from the business community and then implement it across the country rather than bringing in changes often.”

TiE president G Karthikeyan said, “Both the Central and State Governments have brought in nearly 94 notifications after GST rollout and this is affecting the business.” There was also no official GST software.

Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Vanitha Mohan suggested that like in Maharashtra, there should be GST advisory committees in each district in Tamil Nadu.

BJP state secretary Vanathi Srinivasan said small and medium enterprises were facing some difficulties because of GST and steps would be taken soon to resolve them. “There is a negativity among the public about GST and we fear that its positives might not reach the public,” she said, adding that industrial bodies should also make representations to the State Government.

GST Principal Chief Commissioner CP Rao said, “The wet grinder tax slab issue has come to our notice and steps will be taken to resolve it.”

GST was inclusive of MRP. An anti-profiteering committee had been formed in the State under the leadership Chennai North GST Commissioner and people can make complaints in case they come across such issues of GST outside MRP or excess charge, he added.