Most e-commerce firms passed on GST cuts, offered extra festive discounts: Piyush Goyal

Union MInister Piyush Goyal

Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Saturday said that nearly all e-commerce companies have passed on the benefit of recent GST rate cuts to consumers and, in many cases, extended additional Navratri discounts.

“Almost all e-commerce companies passed GST cuts and also gave Navratri offers over and above that, as per what we have monitored,” Goyal said.
India's two major e-commerce platforms--Amazon and Flipkart--have collectively passed on the GST rate-cut benefits worth over Rs 300 crore to customers in their respective early "festive sale" days, both companies had told Moneycontrol in a statement earlier this month.

Goyal added that consumer enthusiasm during the festive period reflects a stronger ‘Swadeshi’ sentiment. “Everyday items like cosmetics, beauty products, watches, pens, paper — there is nothing that hasn’t been made in a way to boost enthusiasm and pride in the country, and encourage people to buy local. I am fully confident that the spirit created from Navratri to the New Year has reached every home, and today, every person feels a stronger sense of ‘Swadeshi’,” he said.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the government is witnessing clear signs of improving consumption trends following the rollout of GST 2.0, which she described as one of the key engines for growth.

“Touching gross GST close to Rs 2 lakh crore makes the case for passing on benefits to consumers,” Sitharaman said. She emphasised that the recent tax reductions were not limited to the festive season but aimed at creating fiscal space to boost spending. “These reductions mean more collections, so better fiscal room to give back something,” she added.

The FM added that the government is monitoring the prices of 54 items to assess whether GST cuts have been passed on to retail. These, however, don’t include insurance items.

The FM clarified that among the items being monitored are drugs and medicines, and related equipment.

She highlighted that the total number of complaints that the Department of Consumer Affairs has received is 3,169 – among which 3,075 have been forwarded to GST nodal officers.

“Majority of complaints are related to a gap between the understanding of the GST cuts and what has actually been rolled out,” said Sitharaman.

Rejecting suggestions that the recent consumption surge was temporary, the minister said, “The pent-up demand was only for a month as people were waiting once they got the indication in August there will be GST cuts. So we should not conflate it to revenge spending. The impact of GST cuts will sustain beyond the festive season. The consumption story will continue.”

Sitharaman also noted that most inverted duty structures under GST had been resolved. “We still have one or two items in which inversion may be happening and we will iron it out. But inversion has been largely corrected,” she said.

Reiterating the Centre’s position on revenue sharing under GST, Sitharaman stressed that both the Centre and states share responsibility for collection and losses. “All of us are equally in it. The Centre is not sitting with an additional bag of resources to fund states if they’re not doing well… All of us collect and put into one bag, and all of us take out of it,” she said.