On Friday, in view of the high pre-GST stock left with the dealer and retailer association, the gov ernment has extended the date of selling such stock by another three months time i.e December 31, 2017. Nonetheless as advised previously such goods need to a carry a label with the new price post GST listed on it and such a provision was allowed until September 30.

Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Minister Ram Vilas Paswan tweeted,"On packaged commodities, industry can display revised MRP due to GST implementation using sticker/ stamping/online printing up to December 31 2017."

The demand from many companies that included HPL, Wipro and other non-food companies made the ministry to take the decision. At the same time, as food items come with an expiry date, there was not so much demand from them on the issue. One of the traders CAIT highlighted that in case the extension to sell the MRP-tagged old stock is not allowed, goods worth Rs. 6 lakh crores would become redundant.

The government notification concerning the matter says "The government hereby further permits the manufacturers or packers or importers of pre-packaged commodities to declare the changed retail price (MRP) on the unsold stock manufactured/packed/imported prior to July 1, 2017 after inclusion of the increased amount of tax due to GST, if any, in addition to the existing retail price (MRP), up to December 31, 2017".

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