Micro and Cottage Industries body of Coimbatore and Tirupur on Tuesday started sending e-mails to Prime Minister and Finance Minister seeking reduction in the GST rate from 18 per cent to 5 per cent for engineering job orders undertaken by them.

Led by KOTMA (Kovai Tirupur District Micro and Cottage Entrepreneurs Association) President Ravikumar, the industrial units owners came at the post office near district collectorate and handed over bunch of mails and also postal cover to be sent to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

They also marked copies to Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami, State Revenue and Finance Secretary.
Besides,the association also sought exemption from GST to those units, which transact business less than Rs.20 lakh, as against 50 per cent now, he said adding that the issue was presented to the then Commerce Minister, Nirmala Seetharaman, who was here two months ago.

The members, who sent nearly 500 mails, planned to send more than 20,000 mails to the authorities in another 45 days. Ravikumar said that due to the GST rates, nearly 50 per cent of 30,000 units stopped production.