In the cracker market, the talk often is on how effective a particular cracker burst is. The more the sound and fury, the higher the demand. But this time around, the talk in the market is on the ‘impact’ of a different kind — the impact of the Goods and Services Tax (GST). From the 14.5% Value Added Tax which cracker units used to pay till last year, they are now coughing up a GST of 28%, an increase which has reflected in the prices of the various items.
The prices of everything from flower pots to sparklers have increased by ₹3 to ₹5 per item, compared to last year. This translates to a major increase when bought in bulk as boxes. The cheapest of sparklers are priced at ₹17, for a box of 10, while there are expensive ones with longer sparkling time, priced at ₹77 for a box of five. The smallest flower pots sell at ₹88 for a box of 10. The giant flower pots are priced at ₹36 for one. Rockets are priced at ₹124 for a box.
Fall in no. of shops
“You can see the impact of GST by just counting the number of cracker shops in the city. There is a marked fall in the number of shops compared to last year. The price increase due to GST and the steep licence fees make this unviable, unless you have bulk orders. Many of the small traders are staying away. There is a limit to which you can increase the prices, beyond which the customers will stay away or reduce the volume of purchase,” says Vijayan, who has been doing the annual cracker business for the past three years. Traders who have visited the cracker hub in Sivakasi say that the number of units making cracker has also shrunk, due to the twin impacts of demonetisation and GST. With the hartal on Monday, it is another day of business lost for the traders here. The threat of rain over the next two days is also looming large, which could be a dampener for the celebrations. For those involved in the annual cracker business, the picture is not so rosy this year.
