Mumbai: High Goods and Services Tax (GST) on crackers and confusion over the ban in Delhi-NCR have virtually taken the spark out of the business this Deepavali.
Mohammed Ali Road, which has the city’s oldest crackers market, is seeing a drop in sales. Local resident Vishal Sawant said, customers would overflow to the main roads causing traffic jams. “The police would be struggling to handle the surge. This year, the crowd has reduced to less than a half, and the smooth flow of traffic even during evening peak hours bears testimony.”
Over 70–80 stalls spring up on the footpaths around Chakla Market that lies between Crawford Market and Masjid Bunder, during the four days of the festival.
Hasan Surti, a partner in such a stall, said, though there is no ban in Mumbai, people are confused that the ban in Delhi-NCR extends to the city as well. “I come from Mumbra to put up the stall, but this year, the response has been lukewarm. The corporation grants us permission for four days.”
Sohail Pathan, another cracker stall owner, however, blamed the slump in money market conditions. “The money market is tight after the imposition of the GST, and this had a direct bearing on the sales.”
The government decision to levy 28% GST on crackers, said C.M. Pinjari, who has been in the business for about two decades, has killed the market sentiments. “I have never seen such dull sales in this market.”
“Ban on crackers is impractical and no one bothers about it in Mumbai,” said Shaila Gaikwad, who travelled from Worli to Masjid. “Yes, the noisy crackers could be banned, but why clamp down on sparklers. We buy crackers only once a year. Our children love the crackers and it’s not fair to ban them.”
Mr. Sawant said he had to slash his budget for crackers from ₹10,000 to ₹3,000 this year.
