Mumbai: Channel partners who are waiting to clear the stocks that carry VAT, OCTROI are likely to have a relief as the government on Friday extended the deadline to sell pre-GST goods with stickers/stamps of revised rates up to December 31.
The earlier deadline was September 30. The revision came after several requests from the industry and retailers to extend the deadline for some more time. The traders had feared huge losses — cumulatively running into thousands of crores – if the deadline to clear pre-GST stocks was not extended as the stocks were not likely to be cleared by the initial deadline of September 30.
“On packaged commodities industry can display revised MRP due to GST implementation using sticker/stamping/online printing up to December 31, 2017,” Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Ram Vilas Paswan said in a tweet.
On account of implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST) from July 1 this year, the retail sale price of several pre-packaged commodities were required to be changed. The government had allowed the manufacturers, packers and importers of pre-packaged commodities to declare the revised maximum retail sale price (MRP) in addition to the existing MRP upto September 30.
The changed MRP was allowed to be displayed through stickers, stamping or online printing etc. The use of unexhausted packaging material/wrappers was also allowed for the same period after making the necessary corrections.
“Considering the requests received to extend the permission for some more time it has been extended to display the revised MRP due to implementation of GST by way of stamping or putting sticker or online printing for a further period of three months, that is,upto December 31, 2017,” a government release said.
The latest move will impact the IT channel. According to market sources, many channel partners are struggling to liquidate their existing stocks. With this new option, many channel partners can easily liquidate their pre-GST stocks and can gear for the new calendar year. While many retailers had stopped purchasing pre-GST materials, there are some mid-layer distributors who are struggling to move their stocks with the retailers.