This month for Rakhi and Ganesh Chaturthi may be harsh on your sweet tooth and that of shopkeepers, due to the newly rolled out Goods and Services Tax (GST) cutting a bitter taste in the mouth.
GST, which was introduced in July, 2017 , taxes the most important part of the festive diet — sweets — at a rate of 5 per cent. Other celebratory items like savouries and chocolates also attract GST rates of 12 per cent and 28 per cent respectively.
With Raksha Bandhan and Ganesh Chaturthi usually marking a jump in sales of sweets, GST has left smaller sweet shop owners in distress.
However, sweet shop owners, especially the small-scale ones are struggling to keep up with the slew of GST clarifications.
This has led to confusion, with some shopkeepers saying there is 28 per cent GST for sweets containing chocolate and others claiming it is 5 per cent.
