TIRUPATI: Granite industrial units in Chittoor district may find it difficult to pay salaries to employees under the effect of Goods and Services Tax (GST), according to their business leaders. There are about 450- 500 granite units in Chittoor district. The sale of the granite has fallen drastically. Their owners claim that the situation was better during the period following the demonetisation of old notes compared to the post-GST time which calls for paying 28 per cent.

Before GST, the tax was only 2 per cent or the sale and C-forms submitted for 12.5 per cent. The employees of granite industry are not getting their salaries regularly. K. Lakshman, an employee from a granite industry, said, “The owner has intimated us a day before month-end that the salary which was to be credited to our bank account on Tuesday will be delayed. I don’t know what to do. I wanted to shift the job but the whole industry is facing the same.”

Employees in Chittoor region face more trouble as 80 per cent of the industry is in Chittoor. The rest are spread across Kuppam, Madanapalli, Punganur and Tirupati. The owners of the granite industry in Chittor expect 50 per cent of the units to close down soon with the situation continuing to be the same. There are about 1,000 cutters in Chittoor district who cut around 4 lakh sq ft daily but not even 50,000 sq ft was sold in the last month.

Speaking to this newspaper, Granite Owner Association general secretary V. Sekhar Babu said the purchasers are opting for tiles as the tax after GST was reduced to 28 per cent from 31.5 per cent.