A tribal woman is seen outside of her living house as she sets Kendu leaves in Sunshine for dry near to Madanpur-Rampur area in Kalahandi district of Odisha.
| Photo Credit: Biswaranjan Rout
The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) on Thursday (September 4, 2025) strongly objected to the Centre’s cold shoulder in granting complete Goods and Services Tax (GST) exemption on kendu leaves and handloom products — a long-standing demand of major political parties and people’s organisations in Odisha.
The regional party also demanded the Centre compensate revenue loss of about ₹1,000 per month that the Odisha government is now likely to incur after the new GST slabs come into effect.
Addressing a press conference on the implications of the revised GST slabs for Odisha, BJD senior vice president Debi Prasad Mishra, and former State Finance Minister and MLA Niranjan Pujari said that, since 2018, the BJD had been consistently demanding complete exemption of GST on kendu leaves.
“The then Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had also written to the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, urging full GST exemption on kendu leaves. Under the new GST slab, the rate on kendu leaves has been reduced from 18% to 5%. However, despite this reduction, the kendu leaf pluckers will not derive any substantial and real benefit,” Mr. Mishra said.
Mr. Pujari pointed out that similar demands had been made for full GST exemption in the handloom sector as well, keeping the interests of weavers in mind.
“In the textile sector, there are both powerlooms and handlooms. While powerlooms are controlled by industrialists, handlooms sustain poor weavers who produce cotton sarees, silk sarees, and similar items. To encourage and support these economically vulnerable weavers, exemption from GST has been repeatedly demanded. However, even for them, 5% GST continues to be levied,” the former State Finance Minister said.
The BJD reiterated complete exemptions of GST for both the sectors.
According to State government, Odisha is the third highest producer of kendu leaves, after Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. The annual production of kendu leaves is around 3 lakh quintals, which is about 20% of the national annual production.
Kendu leaf is found in 22 districts of Odisha, and the majority of people dependent on kendu leaf trade are tribals.
Published – September 04, 2025 08:21 pm IST