New Delhi, December 24: People have been hit hard by Goods and Service Tax (GST). It has made things easy for people by engaging all the taxes under one tax that is GST. Changes in all sectors because of this new law have become very evident. One such change is in the food sector where the unsold packed goods will get a new price tag under GST. The government has issued an order where the vendors are asked to place a sticker beside the original Market Retail Price (MRP).
The government had earlier issued a notice that revised price of the unsold packed products needed to be given by the retailer to the consumer. Minister of Food and Consumer Affairs, Ram Vilas Paswan said that deadline for this was late in September which has now been revised to March. The retailers are asked to provide separate stickers of revised prices beside the original price. The revised price will contain the GST also. MRP or Maximum Retail Price is the highest price that can be charged to a consumer after including all taxes. But in case of some commodities, the tax rate has changed post Goods and Services Tax (GST), making some changes in the MRP. This created a problem for several businesses which were left with large volumes of unsold pre-packed items when the GST came into force from 1 July.
However the government has now allowed the vendors to market their unsold products with the new price tag inclusive of GST. The old price has to be clearly displayed on the product. Apart from this if the price has to be increased for the unsold stocks the manufacturer or the packer needs to place atleast two advertisements in two or more newspaper informing people about the change.
The prices of almost 200 products were reduced because of GST and the government has taken this step to increase the time limit so that it will be feasible to all. The State has directed a team of legal metrology officers to have a check on the necessary measures on the revised price on unsold products. The Ministry has permitted the companies to paste additional stickers under the the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules, 2011.