Khammam: A month on, consumers in Khammam still reel from the nightmarish experience of GST.
Prices of food grains have not come down as expected, despite foodgrains in the ‘zero’ slab, while prices of medicines have jumped up and the medical stores, which used to give eight percent rebate on pills to regular customers, stopped such discounts citing GST.
Prices of all pulses, such as Bengal Gram, Green Gram, Red Gram and Black Gram should have come down in GST regime.
Interestingly, many of the tea leaf brands are not available. P. Sundari, a housewife, said, “I have been trying to get Red Label 100 gram packets for the last 10 days, but I did not get it. Every shopkeeper offered 250 gram packet instead of 100 grams. The price of 250 gram is Rs 106 and 100 grams is Rs 30.
There is Rs 35 difference on 250 grams packet when compared to the weight of the same product”. Shop owners say that supply of some products was stopped by the companies as they repack with new GST prices.
Many of the businessmen are trying to make money by utilising the situation and not attempting to give price relief to the consumers.
Pharmacists Association of Khammam, which met recently, asked its members to stop discounts on medicines because the GST on medicines is taxed from 5 per cent to 12 per cent. T. Syamsunder, a pharmacist said, “Some pharmaceutical companies are taking time to produce and distribute the next batch of medicines with altered prices”.
