The FMCG industry, which includes big players such as HUL and ITC and many others such as Dabur, Marico, Godrej, Jyothy Laboratories, Emami etc is a big industry worth about Rs 60,000 crore. It has benefited from the excise duty cuts announced as part of the stimulus package before the elections and wishes it is not rolled back.
HK Press, vice-chairman, Godrej Consumer Products Ltd, said, “There are some rumours that these benefits will be rolled back. We hope that they aren’t.”
Press also said that the FMCG sector will benefit if the fringe benefit tax is done away with. “It adds to the costs unnecessarily as there is a lot of travelling involved in our work.”
The wishlist, like most other industries also includes timely implementation of the single goods and services tax (GST), instead of multiple tax levies in the current regime.
The sector, which has seen substantial growth coming from the rural areas also expects the Government to continue to focus its initiatives there.
“Rural India has been the big growth driver for the industry and the Indian economy in the previous year. I expect the government to continue their focus on the rural sector with rural employment guarantee schemes and profitable supply of funds to the area, besides ensuring greater focus on execution of policies”, said Dabur India Ltd CEO Sunil Duggal.
Ullas Kamath, deputy managing director of Jyothy Laboratories also called for greater emphasis on the sector by the Government. “It’s a great sector for the Government to create employment for the needy. Presently that emphasis is missing”, he said. Kamath also agreed that introduction of GST will be a big relief for the sector.
{{/usCountry}}Ullas Kamath, deputy managing director of Jyothy Laboratories also called for greater emphasis on the sector by the Government. “It’s a great sector for the Government to create employment for the needy. Presently that emphasis is missing”, he said. Kamath also agreed that introduction of GST will be a big relief for the sector.
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