The increase in the cost of packaged drinking water from January 1 will be only for dealers and not on the maximum retail price. It will not affect the consumers, said packaged drinking manufacturers.
The Greater Tamil Nadu Packaged Drinking Water Manufacturers’ Association had announced that price of water packaged in various capacities from 300 ml to five litres would be increased by 10% from January 1.
Members said the decision was taken as the price of packaging materials had gone up by 40%.
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Association’s founder A. Shakespeare said the cost of various raw material like bottles, wrappers and carton boxes had gone up.
“The increase in price for stock sold to dealers would be nominal. For instance, the rise in dealers’ price would work out to 30 paise for every 300 ml bottle. Similarly, it would be ₹1 for two-litre bottle,” he said.
The 10% increase in price would be applied per box of packaged drinking water. For example, one box would have 30 numbers of 300-ml bottles. Similarly, there would be nine bottles of 2-litre capacity in a box.
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Bubble top cans
The refilling rate for 20-litre bubble top containers has been increased by ₹2 for dealers. But, there would not be any change in prices for consumers, Mr. Shakespeare said.
As this was not the peak season, the consumption of packaged drinking water remains at 1.7 crore to 2 crore litres daily. In Tamil Nadu, the daily consumption of packaged drinking water was five crore litres. The consumption was expected to go up in summer.
At present, there were nearly 1,750 packaged drinking water manufacturing units approved by Bureau of Indian Standards across the State.