KTR strongly advocated for complete exemption of GST on handloom products, calling it a matter of cultural pride and economic justice.
Published Aug 19, 2025 | 9:11 PM ⚊ Updated Aug 19, 2025 | 9:11 PM
File photo of KTR. (KTRTRS/Facebook)
Synopsis: BRS leader K.T. Rama Rao urged the Centre to enact meaningful GST reforms ahead of the Council meeting. In an open letter, he demanded GST exemption on handlooms, essential goods, insurance, education, and fuel. He criticised high fuel taxes, calling them inflation drivers, and dismissed recent GST slab changes as “jumla politics.” He urged genuine steps to ease public hardship.
Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) Working President KT Rama Rao has written a open letter to the Union government ahead of the GST Council meeting, urging it to focus on genuine pro-people reforms instead of “cosmetic fixes.”
In the detailed letter, KTR pressed for abolition of GST on handloom products, removal of GST on essential life-saving items, and immediate reduction of fuel prices, warning that failure to act would deepen the economic distress of millions of Indians.
KTR said it was his duty to represent the voices of Telangana’s people as well as ordinary citizens across India. “Through this open letter, I place before you a set of specific demands, suggestions, and strong objections—grounded not in politics but in the lived economic realities of our citizens,” he wrote.
KTR strongly advocated for complete exemption of GST on handloom products, calling it a matter of cultural pride and economic justice.
He recalled that under the leadership of BRS supremo K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR), the Telangana government had rolled out welfare schemes like Chenetha Mithra, offering 50 percent subsidy on raw materials to weavers. Insurance-backed initiatives had also improved the lives of thousands of weaving families.
He accused the Modi-led central government of ignoring repeated appeals to exempt handlooms from taxation and instead imposed a 5 percent GST, with even engaging in discussions about raising it to 12 percent. “I was the first leader in the country to object and write to the Prime Minister opposing this regressive move,” KTR asserted.
“Handlooms are not just a cottage industry—they are a symbol of India’s culture. Taxing them is an insult to our national heritage,” he said, demanding a complete rollback of GST on handloom products.
After breaking the backs of hardworking citizens of this nation with uncontrolled price hike for over a decade, all the chatter about GST slab abolishment feels like yet another Jhumla
On behalf of BRS and scores of common men of this country I demand actionable and impactful… pic.twitter.com/hfXMx9zOYW
— KTR (@KTRBRS) August 19, 2025
The BRS leader rejected the Centre’s recent move to abolish the 12 percent GST slab, calling it eyewash and a classic case of “jumla politics.” He argued that the 12 percent slab accounts for just 5 percent of total GST revenues of ₹22 lakh crore, and that shifting goods from one slab to another while projecting it as a “massive reform” was “both deceptive and laughable.”
“Over the last decade, your government taxed even basic necessities like milk, curd, pulses, and salt under GST. You escalated the prices of petrol, diesel, and LPG without remorse, burdening crores of families. Now, in an attempt to whitewash those blunders, you leak news about slab restructuring to distract from real issues,” KTR charged.
KTR also singled out high fuel taxation as the single biggest cause of inflation, accusing the Centre of mercilessly taxing petrol, diesel, and LPG despite international crude prices falling to 2014 levels. “India continues to have the highest fuel prices in the world—thanks to your unrelenting imposition of excise duties and cesses,” he wrote.
He said no GST rejig would provide relief unless fuel prices were cut. “Transportation costs directly influence the prices of essentials. Unless you reduce fuel and LPG rates, the common man will continue to suffer,” he warned.
KTR also criticised the practice of collecting fuel taxes as cess instead of excise, saying it deprived states of their rightful revenue share and violated fiscal federalism. He demanded immediate reduction of fuel prices and abolition of cesses.
In his letter, KTR listed seven non-negotiable demands on behalf of citizens. They included complete abolition of GST on handloom products, removal of GST on all life insurance and health insurance policies, waiver of GST on education-related fees, abolition of GST on cancer medicines and life-saving drugs, reduction of taxes on petrol, diesel, and LPG, and scrapping of fuel cesses.
He also wanted an end to “eyewash measures” like 12 percent slab removal and instead reducing GST on essential commodities, do away with propaganda-driven measures and showing genuine intent to reduce prices.
KTR accused the Centre of “looting thousands of rupees every month from poor and middle-class families through fuel taxation” while promoting hollow measures like slab reduction as grand reforms. He said such acts amounted to political self-praise while ignoring the real issues of inflation and livelihood crises.
He also urged the Telangana government to strongly push for GST exemption on handlooms at the Council meeting.
Referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Independence Day speech where he promised to reduce prices and offer a “true Diwali” to the people, KTR said: “If that promise carries any sincerity, then it must begin with a sharp reduction in petrol, diesel, and LPG prices—the actual causes of inflation. Only then will the nation see true relief.”
(Edited by Sumavarsha)
