Is GST taking the sweetness out of Diwali gifting?

This Diwali buying sweets and snacks as gifts have become bitter for both customers and shopkeepers on the back of higher Goods and Services Tax (GST) rate levied on these products.

Under GST, plain barfi is taxed at the lowest rate of 5% - but at the same chocolate barfi is taxed at higher slab of 28% and also plain barfi if garnished with cardamom or dry fruits is charged at 12% tax rate.

Even Rasgullas has a GST rate of 5%.

Following which, sweets have become costlier by 5 - 10% compared to last year. Even the cost of namkeen has gone up by 7 - 15%.

Shopkeepers said, "Even to prepare sweets we have to pay different types of GST. Apart from GST rates on various sweet dishes we also have to pay different rates on packaging. This has stirred up the prices of sweets and snacks in Indian market.”

According to them, there different kind of products like dry fruits which customers prefer mixed and each kind of dry fruits have different GST - which makes it difficult for them to convince the customers to pay higher prices. Dry fruits have become costlier by 10% - which has lowered their demand 70% - 80%.

Amid such situation, Big basket has unveiled a Diwali gift sales ranging from chocolates to fresh fruits – in a move to keep the spirit of the festival.

Big Basket said, “It is that time of the year again, the festive season! With shopping and gifting frenzy abound, this season is truly the harbinger of joy and prosperity. One such festival is

Diwali, where every member of the family participates equally. Diwali gifts have a special place and there are plenty of gifting options around.”

Under the sale, bigbasket is all set to ensure that the dry fruits you plan to gift are a class apart with the much-needed variety – at cheaper rates starting from as low as Rs 99.

There are somewhat 25 dry fruits gifting packs at heavy discounts where you can save between Rs 30 – Rs 250 on each packs.

Also there are variety of offers available on sweets and namkeen – where a customer can save up to Rs 300. There are about 63 gift packs in these categories.

One can pick and choose from a wide range of fruits for their Fresho fruit box ranging from apples from Shimla, Kashmir, Washington, green pears to mini oranges, pomegranate, jumbo kiwi etc. This pack starts from Rs 299.

Heavy discounts are also available on imported chocolates – where a customer can save nearly Rs 1700 depending upon their choice. 

To order from Bigbasket, one needs to select their city or location where the gift needs to be sent – add the address. Then select the gift option and check out and pay. However, cash on delivery is not available on this sale.