To shut down the confusion among both consumers and retailers regarding the GST effect on Maximum Retail Price(MRP), government on Tuesday released rules regarding the same.
From now onwards, manufacturers and retailers can put new price tags on their pre-GST stock of goods and sell them till 30 September 2017. This announcement ended the confusion among the shopkeepers over their stock which was left unsold on July 1. Besides, government will take legal action against the shopkeepers if the revised MRP under GST of a product is not furnished.
If there is any increase in the Maximum Retail Price(MRP) due to GST on the old inventory, then manufacturer/ importer/ packer will have to give an advertisement in two newspapers about the new MRP and put a revised sticker on the packaging. While there is no such requirement if the new MRP is lower than the previous.
Videocon’s chief operating officer on this announcement said, “If we would have known this earlier, the industry could have planned the transition better. Retailers would have not have been under pressure to liquidate old stock at almost cost price and primary sales from companies to trade would not have declined the way it did in June”.