New Delhi: Removing sanitary napkins from the Goods and Services Tax (GST) bracket might lead domestic producers to raise the price, Biju Janata Dal MP Bhartruhari Mahtab said in the Lok Sabha Tuesday.
While speaking in the House during a discussion on Supplementary Demands for Grants first batch for 2018-19 and demands for excess grants for 2015-16, Mahtab criticised the government policy.
“The decision to withdraw GST on sanitary napkins or to exempt them from the tax will bring down prices. Is it so? The answer is no, rather some domestic producers may have to raise prices. The government’s move to remove sanitary napkins from GST will hurt domestic small-scale and self-help groups which manufacture sanitary napkins,” said Mahtab.
He further said that against 12 per cent GST levied, the manufacturer used to get an input tax credit but after the government decision there will not be any input tax credit for manufacturing sanitary napkins. The taxes paid in the input will now be passed on to the consumers and no credit would be applicable after the exemption, meaning, price is certainly would not come down.
Mahtab, however, said withdrawing of GST on sanitary napkins will help foreign products imported into India, especially Chinese. “The importers had to pay basic customs duty of 10 per cent earlier. Their product was charged 10 per cent customs duty plus 12 per cent GST. Thus, the total incidence on their product was 22 per cent. However, in case of domestic manufacturers especially women self-help groups, no GST was levied on units with turnover of below Rs 20 lakh. Their input cost was low and, thus, their product was competitive,” Mahtab said.
“The sanitary napkin manufacturers in the domestic market had to pay 12 per cent GST for the cost of product and thus the sale price used to fall by a few per cent due to input tax credit mechanism on the raw material,”
he added.
Reply sought on rights violations
New Delhi: Cuttack MP Bhartruhari Mahtab (BJD) has sought a response from the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution over violations of consumer rights in the country. While speaking during the Question Hour in the Lok Sabha, Tuesday, the BJD parliamentarian said, “The complaints related to consumer rights violations have increased in the country. My question is whether the courts for redressal have also increased accordingly in respective states and in the country as a whole to resolve the complaints.” The BJD leader further said that justice delayed is justice denied. “If it gets delayed further, there will be no redressal of the complaints,” he added. In reply to Mahtab’s query, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said, “The number will increase with the awareness among the people. The number of complaints has been increasing. We will have to work hard to resolve the complaints. We have increased the number of national helplines from 14 to 60. I agree with you that we have to work to clear the complaints. We will put efforts along with state governments to resolve the problems. I urged the government to bring a Bill in three days and I request you all to support that Bill without debate as it was already discussed in standing committee.” Mahtab further asked the minister whether the government has sought participation of the Panchayati Raj institutions for creating awareness among the people in rural areas.
