Daily essentials cheaper from today as GST 2.0 takes off

New Delhi: Daily essentials and food products will be cheaper from Monday, as leading FMCG companies have slashed prices, extending GST cut benefits to consumers.

The move is expected to lead to a spike in consumption and a surge in sales during the upcoming festival season, which starts with the Navratri celebrations.

FMCG companies have extended benefits of GST 2.0 with immediate reduction on price without any disruption, along with some discounts for festivals as they expect to enter a new growth phase after facing a few challenging quarters that saw persistent food inflation and slow pace of urban consumption.

Companies operating in the space of FMCG products have issued revised price lists with new MRPs on their products, including soaps, shampoo, baby diapers, toothpaste, razors, and after-shave lotions, effective from September 22.

Besides, firms operating in the food verticals have also slashed prices on products as snacks as namkeen and bhujia to sweets, coffee, tea, butter, ghee, ice-cream, chocolates, etc.

The makers have dispatched products with revised MRP tags to inventories of distributors, warehouses of e-coms and shelves of traditional kirana stores, absorbing the tax gap.

Moreover, existing stocks in the market have been aligned with revised new goods & service tax (GST) structure through special trade discounts and QPS schemes.

Leading FMCG firms such as Dabur, ITC, Procter & Gamble, Emami, Nestle, RCPL, Amul and HUL have come up with new price lists that have been communicated to their respective distributors and consumers through their respective websites or through advertisement in local dailies.

Home-grown firm Dabur has reduced the prices of Real Juice (pack of 1 litre) from Rs130 to Rs122 and Chyawanprakash (900 gm) from Rs475 to Rs440. It has also reduced the price of its Dabur Red and Meswak brand toothpastes (200 gm) to Rs 135 from Rs153. Prices of digestive pills Hajmola (120 tab) have also been slashed to Rs65 from Rs70.

Nestle India has not only increased prices of its instant noodles Maggi from 500 gm to 600 gm but also reduced the price from Rs120 to Rs116.

Similarly, it has also extended the price of Nescafe Classic (45gm) to Rs235, slashing price of Rs30 and Rs95 on Nescafe Gold to Rs755.

ITC has slashed the price of Savlon (100 ml) to Rs374 from Rs400. It has reduced prices of cow ghee (1 litre) to Rs1,010 from Rs1,080 and Sunfeast Marie Light (956 gm pack) to Rs150 from Rs170.

Food & beverages major PepsiCo’s distributor Varun Beverages has slashed the prices of Tropica Apple Juice (1 litre) to Rs105 from Rs115, mango juice slice (1.2 litre) from Rs70 to Rs65 and Aquafina water bottle (1 litre) to Rs18 from Rs20. Prices of aerated-based drinks remain unchanged as they would continue to face 40 per cent duty under GST 2.0.

GST 2.0 has two slabs of 5 per cent and 18 per cent as against the current four slabs of 5, 12, 18 and 28 per cent.