Centre receives 3981 calls on GST 2.0 price cuts; majority complaints pertain to milk, electronic goods prices: Finance Ministry

The central government has received 3,981 GST-related dockets, comprising 31 percent queries and 69 percent grievances on theNational Consumer Helpline (NCH), the ministry of finance said today. Majority of grievance pertain to milk price, followed by electronic goods, LPG and petrol.

“Out of the total, 1,992 GST-related grievances have been forwarded to the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) for appropriate action, while 761 grievances have been referred in real-time to the concerned convergence companies for resolution. CCPA continues to closely monitor the handling of these complaints and will initiate further proceedings wherever violations of consumer rights are established.,” the ministry said in a release.

“The Department of Consumer Affairs is keeping a close watch on these dockets for their early resolution /clarification. The grievances have been escalated to the concerned brand owners/e-commerce entities for quick action. Further, CCPA has initiated detailed review of these grievances for initiating class action, wherever necessary,” the ministry said in a release,” the ministry said.

The ministry said a major share of grievances pertained to milk pricing. “A large number of consumers approached NCH with the belief that following the GST reform, milk companies were required to reduce the prices of fresh milk. Consumers complained that milk companies were continuing to charge pre-reform prices, thereby denying them the benefit of the reduced GST rate. CCPA, after examining the issue, has found that fresh milk is already exempt from GST. The recent GST rate reforms has exempted UHT milk too,” the ministry said.

Another substantial category of complaints related to electronic goods purchased through e-commerce websites, according to the ministry. “Consumers raised grievances that laptops, refrigerators, washing machines, and other consumer durables purchased online were still being charged at pre-reform GST rates, and that no benefit of tax reduction was being passed on to them. CCPA’s analysis revealed that GST rate was reduced from 28% to 18% on TVs, monitor, dishwashing machines, ACs as part of GST reforms.  Goods such as laptops, refrigerator, washing machine etc are already at 18%,” it said.

A third cluster of grievances concerned domestic LPG cylinders. Consumers reported that the prices of LPG had not decreased following the reforms. “CCPA has clarified that domestic LPG has continued at the rate of 5 percent GST with no change in the applicable GST rate on LPG for household domestic consumers,” the ministry said. It is important to highlight that LPG pricing is influenced by multiple factors, including global crude oil trends, government subsidy policies, and distribution costs, apart from taxation, it added.

According to a further set of grievances emerged in relation to petrol prices however it was clarified that petrol is outside the purview of GST.