<p align="justify">Country's largest sculpture market, 'Moorti Market' in Pink City, comes to a standstill for the seventh consecutive day as shopkeepers protest against the new tax regime, Goods and Services Tax (GST).<br /><br />Around 3000 sculpture shops and workshops situated in the walled city (Khazane Wale Ke Raste) remained completely shut. The agitating shopkeepers are demanding the exemption of GST on idols of Gods and Goddesses. Earlier under the old tax regime statues of religious identities were exempted from VAT and Excise Duty but now under the new tax regime, GST on statues including (deities) is 28%. The bandh has not only hit the trade but also daily wage workers working at these shops are suffering due to no work. <br /><br />A 79-year-old Shyam Lal Bharadwaj, who owns a small sculpture shop shared his woes with DH, "We are on protest since 28th June as we were apprehensive that government will not exempt idols under new tax slab. Earlier the idols used to be VAT free which would make the cost as well as the price affordable. It is very tricky when it comes to the making of marble sculptures. Sometimes there is a crack in the marble piece we purchase or sometimes there is a damage in the sculpture and in both cases we destroy the statue because no one takes a broken statue of deity as it is considered as a bad omen". <br /><br />On an average, there is a loss of around 5-6 lakh rupees a sculpture shopkeeper faces every year. Some statues they make are discarded if a crack emerges and in most cases, these are the religious idols. <br /><br />Shopkeepers also fear that the potential buyers will go for Chinese made items as the prices of idols will become unaffordable. Jaipur's Moortikala Laghu Udhyog Sansthan and Moortikala Sangharash Samiti a joint representative forums for the shopkeepers are also holding a mega rally on Wednesday in which 200 priests of Rajasthan will participate along with traders and public. <br /><br />"We are ready to pay GST on statues but we are demanding to make religious idols of deities tax-free. We will already be paying 12 percent tax on the purchase of marble and this 28 percent will be an unnecessary topping for us. We will be presenting a memorandum to Chief Minister after the rally and it will have our demands", said Satya Prakash Natha, spokesperson of Moortikala Sangharash Samiti.</p>.<p align="justify"><br />Rajasthan - India's Marble Hub<br /><br />In desert state of Rajasthan, there are around 16,000 quarries, which accounts for over 95% of the marble produced in India. South Rajasthan, specially Udaipur and Rajsamand, is the largest marble mandis in the country. Around 1000 marble processors and traders in Udaipur are protesting against the high GST rate imposed on marble commodities. Economy of several cities in Rajasthan depends on marble industry which has completely closed down from last few days.</p>
<p align="justify">Country's largest sculpture market, 'Moorti Market' in Pink City, comes to a standstill for the seventh consecutive day as shopkeepers protest against the new tax regime, Goods and Services Tax (GST).<br /><br />Around 3000 sculpture shops and workshops situated in the walled city (Khazane Wale Ke Raste) remained completely shut. The agitating shopkeepers are demanding the exemption of GST on idols of Gods and Goddesses. Earlier under the old tax regime statues of religious identities were exempted from VAT and Excise Duty but now under the new tax regime, GST on statues including (deities) is 28%. The bandh has not only hit the trade but also daily wage workers working at these shops are suffering due to no work. <br /><br />A 79-year-old Shyam Lal Bharadwaj, who owns a small sculpture shop shared his woes with DH, "We are on protest since 28th June as we were apprehensive that government will not exempt idols under new tax slab. Earlier the idols used to be VAT free which would make the cost as well as the price affordable. It is very tricky when it comes to the making of marble sculptures. Sometimes there is a crack in the marble piece we purchase or sometimes there is a damage in the sculpture and in both cases we destroy the statue because no one takes a broken statue of deity as it is considered as a bad omen". <br /><br />On an average, there is a loss of around 5-6 lakh rupees a sculpture shopkeeper faces every year. Some statues they make are discarded if a crack emerges and in most cases, these are the religious idols. <br /><br />Shopkeepers also fear that the potential buyers will go for Chinese made items as the prices of idols will become unaffordable. Jaipur's Moortikala Laghu Udhyog Sansthan and Moortikala Sangharash Samiti a joint representative forums for the shopkeepers are also holding a mega rally on Wednesday in which 200 priests of Rajasthan will participate along with traders and public. <br /><br />"We are ready to pay GST on statues but we are demanding to make religious idols of deities tax-free. We will already be paying 12 percent tax on the purchase of marble and this 28 percent will be an unnecessary topping for us. We will be presenting a memorandum to Chief Minister after the rally and it will have our demands", said Satya Prakash Natha, spokesperson of Moortikala Sangharash Samiti.</p>.<p align="justify"><br />Rajasthan - India's Marble Hub<br /><br />In desert state of Rajasthan, there are around 16,000 quarries, which accounts for over 95% of the marble produced in India. South Rajasthan, specially Udaipur and Rajsamand, is the largest marble mandis in the country. Around 1000 marble processors and traders in Udaipur are protesting against the high GST rate imposed on marble commodities. Economy of several cities in Rajasthan depends on marble industry which has completely closed down from last few days.</p>
