The rice prices have been low even after the implementation of GST, as the government has considered the common man’s food item, rice and has exempted it from tax. But the traders are not in a mood to lower down the prices of rice and has kept the prices high with their own tricks. As rice is a normal daily basis food for the poor and middle-class people, many of the state government has levied a minimum 5 percent tax on it with most them exempting it from tax.
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Consumers are expecting the price of rice to be lowered by at least 5 to 10 rupees but the traders are adamant has taken their morale down which has still maintained the price of rice to a staggering 50 to 55 rupees which are somehow expensive for poor people who include it for daily diet. But the traders are just exploiting the consumers with the help of confusive tax provisions of government.
There have been at least 65 percent of the population which consumers rice on daily basis and accounting for the extra burden of the tax, comes at 50 lakhs on the consumers which are considered to be heavy. K Ramana Rao, a retired teacher from BV Nagar stated that “This has been a continuous exploitation by traders and no action from the officials concerned to relieve the burden. Even though they were telling action against such traders and still there were no sincere efforts.”
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In some cases where traders are asked to keep down the price in check, it has been found that they add lower quality rice to the higher quality in some proportion to maintain their profit at a certain level. The government along with police have conducted raids over some traders and have booked cases against them for doing illegal profiteering.
