Jaipur, one of the metro cities of India saw a staged protest on Wednesday due to the GST being levied on idols of god and goddess. The sculptor’s community here made a huge protest in the middle of city area in between Khazane Walon Ka Rasta to Jaipur Collectorate, a very busy route in almost every hour of the day.
The sculptor’s community wanted an immediate rollback of GST from the idols being made for the temples and other religious purposes, as mentioned by the leaders of the protest. Satya Prakash Natha, spokesperson of Moortikala Laghu Udyog Mandal Sansthan stated that “We are demanding a rollback of GST on sculpting. Never before have we been brought under the tax net as we create idols of gods and goddesses.”
The protest was done under the banner of Moortikala Sangharsh Samiti which was taking the matter to a higher level up to the Union Ministers Arjun Ram Meghwal and Santosh Kumar Gangwar along with the CM of the state. Satya Prakash Natha also said that “Moreover, we were first told that we fall under the 28 per cent tax slab then today we were told by the district administration that we will be under 12 per cent tax slab. Irrespective of the tax slab, we want a complete rollback.”
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The sculptor’s community has already elongated their protests from ten days by shutting their shops down and making a “chetawni (warning) rally” on July 3 after which a wide protest was done. It was also mentioned that “Levying GST on sculptors of Gods is an attack on Hinduism” on one of the pamphlets.
Pandit Kamal Bhardwaj, a leader of the Sangharsh Samiti mentioned the issues briefly that, “We have been saying that it is temples and religious organisations which buy our idols. And they are run mostly by donations. So does the government want to tax these donations? They should consider Hindu sentiments, Then there are some inimical problems. When we buy stones, we cannot tell whether it is spotted from within or not, whether it will turn out to be brittle, etc. And we don’t want all sculptors to be put in the same tax bracket, we only want the sculptors of gods to be exempted from GST.”
He also added that “We had earlier met Union Ministers Arjun Ram Meghwal and Santosh Kumar Gangwar and were assured positively. However, this was given a miss in the GST Council meet, We are told that our concerns will be taken up in the next GST Council meeting and now look forward to it.” A memorandum was being submitted to the district collector for the future concerns in this matter.