The country's largest cookie manufacturer Parle is on the verge of truncating 8000- 10000 employees due to consistent drop in the demand for the products.
Mayank Shah, category head, Parle Products exclaimed, "We have sought reduction in goods and service tax on biscuits priced at INR 100 per kg or lesser, if the government doesn't provide stimulus,then we have no other choice but to let
go of 8000-10000 of our workforce across the factories, following the sale slowdown which is impacting the business"
The issue comes with Asia's third largest economy crisis hitting the country from automobiles to every retail products. This is forcing companies to reduce the production and sales.
Parle owns 10 plants and 125 third party manufacturing setups, with around 1Lakh employees working for the brand. The previous tax regime collected 12% of tax for the products, but GST has brought 18% tax structure which has forced the company to hike product prices which in-turn is massively affecting their sales.
"The demand is downgrading because of increased GST on biscuits and it is getting worse with the inadequate stimulus from the government. We have multiple biscuit brands which aims at mid and low level consumer base, and we are hoping the GST will be rolled back if the government wants to revive the demand" said Shah.
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