Key Points

Rai Kumar Nahar, who is the Chairman of The Poona Merchant Chamber told ANI, "The GST's four slabs mandated implementation of different kinds of rates which led to mistakes... Two slabs will reduce the scope of mistakes... And one kind of product will mostly have one kind of slab... This will 100% lead to increase in revenue".

Meanwhile, Navin Goyal, Pune Dry Fruit Association VP and Director of The Poona Merchant Chamber, called the GST 2.0 reforms a "great gift" for the merchants and consumers of the state.

"This is a great gift for merchants and consumers. IT will be easy for people to pay taxes and dry fruits can be easily bought by people... This will hugely benefit the consumer as well as the traders," Goyal told ANI.

Prashant Girbane, who is the Director General of the Mahratta Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture (MCCIA) stressed that the GST reforms were "due" from a long time and believed that the decision would increase consumption among people.

"It was long due and I am very glad that this has happened. What has happened essentially, instead of many rates in 2017, we brought it down to four or five rates. Now we are saying, primarily there are only two rates, 5 % and 18%. If it's a luxury and sin goods which is very very few things, that's 40 % and quite a few things also at 0%... It boosts consumption... and the whole positive cycle starts running, and that's a wonderful thing... There is something more than just the rate cut here," he said.

The reform in the Goods and Services Tax structure was approved during the 56th meeting of the GST Council earlier this month is set to come into effect from September 22. The current four-rate system will now be replaced with a streamlined two-slab regime of 5 per cent and 18 per cent. A separate 40 per cent slab has been retained for luxury and sin goods.

This new framework is expected to ease compliance, reduce consumer prices, boost manufacturing, and support a wide range of industries, from agriculture to automobiles and from FMCG to renewable energy, and is intended to lower the cost of living, strengthen MSMEs, widen the tax base, and drive inclusive growth.

In the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) and dairy sector, major brands like Amul and Mother Dairy have announced substantial price cuts, reflecting the full benefit of the GST reduction.

Items like milk, butter, ghee, paneer, cheese, ice cream, snacks, and frozen foods have been brought under the 5 per cent slab, due to which 100 g of Amul butter will now cost Rs 58 instead of Rs 62, and Ultra High Temperature milk (UHT) has dropped to Rs 75 per litre from Rs 77. Mother Dairy has also slashed prices on milkshakes, paneer, ghee, and frozen products.

- ANI