Hyderabad: The government owned Vijaya Dairy has been increasing the price of milk frequently since the beginning of this year.
The most recent hike was on July 1, which gave consumers the impression that it was due to the new GST. But milk has been placed in the 'zero tax' slab just as it was during the VAT regime.
DC reader M.V. Joga Rao from Secunderabad pointed out, “The price of Vijaya whole milk was increased from Rs 26.50 to Rs 28 per half litre from July 1 when GST was launched, though milk comes under zero per cent tax. This caused confusion over whether the hike was on account of GST or a coincidence.”
Vijaya Dairy claims that the latest hike was in order to ‘round off’ the price and not because of GST. But this was not done properly for whole milk.
The price of half a litre of toned milk, which was Rs 20.50 till May 31, was rounded off to Rs 21 from July 1. In the case of whole milk, the price was rounded off to Rs 28 from Rs 26.50, an increase of Rs1.50 per half litre.
The dairy has given a very amusing explanation for why it is necessary to 'round-off' the price.
“Dealers and consumers faced a problem with small change when toned milk price was Rs 20.50 per half litre. To solve this problem, we have rounded off the price to Rs 21. The hike was more in case of whole milk due to higher operational costs,” said Praveen Kumar, general manager (marketing), TS Dairy Development Coo-perative Federation Ltd.
Vijaya has increased the price of milk three times this year; private dairies have not raised their prices in 2017. Vijaya milk is now costler by Rs 4 per litre.
On January 5, the price was hiked by Rs 2 per litre. On April 1, it was incre-ased by Rs 1, followed by the latest hike of Rs 1 on July 1. Price revisions used to be done just once or twice a year earlier.
