Modi: Make sure consumers lower prices from GST

Several changes to the Goods and Services Tax (or GST) were made at the last meeting of the GST council. 178 daily use items were shifted down from the 28% tax bracket, the top tax bracket, to the 18% tax bracket.

Additionally, a uniform 5% tax rate was prescribed for both air-conditioned and non-air-conditioned restaurants.

Last week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired his monthly web-based interaction with secretaries and chief secretaries.

In this meeting, he asked the Department of Consumer Affairs to give special focus to complaints regarding the companies and eating outlets that have not been passing on the benefit of the reduced GST rate to the consumers.

He also asked the department to make systematic changes to minimize any grievances while reviewing the issues related to the grievances of the consumers.

Modi also asked the Department of Consumer Affairs to take certain steps to spread awareness about the service charge levied by eateries.

Many people have been filing complaints about companies increasing the base price while charging less GST, which results in the reduced rate not being passed on to the consumer.

Thus, the department has now issued notifications and circulars to all state governments in India to ensure that the labels of all packaged products in the market reflect the new tax rate, following the recent reduction in GST rates.

According to Ram Vilas Paswan, the Minister of Consumer Affairs, immediately after the GST rate was cut, the government issued directions to put an additional sticker on labels, which would mention the reduced price.

Additionally, Paswan stated that the government has issued a notification which specifies that there will be no dual MRP for the same product and that this policy will be enforced from January.

Thanks to the feedback of consumers, the government is aware of the current issues concerning the GST and is ensuring that they will be fixed.

Image Credit: Yeshwanth1810183 / CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Image Reference: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Goods_Tax_service.jpg