Kochi: A day into the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime, a random fact check proves that the apprehensions of profiteering were not unfounded.
We went to a pan-Indian supermarket chain’s store in Kochi to see how the GST had made an impact. Of course the bills looked different but the changes were not encouraging at all.
On the eve of the GST rollout, a bottle of face wash with an MRP (maximum retail price) of Rs 150 was selling for Rs 135, including value-added tax. A bar of soap was sold at an MRP of Rs 32.
The GST more than doubled the tax on cosmetics, including face wash, to 28 percent, while cutting tax on soap from 24 percent to 18 percent.
On Saturday, however, the same supermarket chain was selling the same bar of soap for the same price. The staff who manned the billing counter said the GST was yet to be introduced yet the bill were different in structure and values from a day ago. The bill clearly recorded the HSN code of the products as required by the GST. The bill comes with headers titled central GST, state GST and integrated GST, without assigning any value against them. The soap carried a tax that was lower by 6 percentage points but the customer did not benefit from it.
As if to make up for it, the face wash was costlier by Rs 15!
The staff sought to justify the increase, saying that it was not the GST effect but the actual MRP. They, however, could not explain why the same product was selling at Rs 135 a day ago.
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