Shares of Hindustan Unilever Ltd. fell at the open today after India's largest FMCG maker warned of a sales decline due to rollout of GST reforms.
HUL share price fell as much as 2.68% to ₹2,443.50 apiece intraday even as the benchmark BSE Sensex rose 0.39% to 80,744.01 points.
On Friday, the India unit of Unilever Plc informed the stock exchanges that it revenue growth to be flat or in low single-digit percentages for the quarter ended 30 September due to the rollout of GST 2.0.
“While this measure supports long-term consumption, we have seen a transitory impact in the form of disruption at distributors and retailers across channels to clear existing inventories with old prices,” the company stated.
On 4 September, India cut GST rates on hundreds of items — from soaps to small cars — to rationalise the Goods and Services Tax into two slabs of 5% and 18 from the earlier four — 5%, 12%, 18% and 28%. Most of the essential goods, which HUL retails, are in the 5% tax slab.