Officials raid malls, book 5 cases

Officials from the Department of Weights and Measures raided malls and stores in Mangaluru and different parts of Dakshina Kannada on Saturday.

Speaking to DH, Assistant Controller Gajendra said that as many as 178 items of daily use were shifted from the top tax bracket of 28% to 18% under GST. However, the sellers have not passed on the benefit to the consumers. In fact, many places were found selling goods at MRP without passing on the benefit to the consumers. Citing an example, he said the GST on soaps was reduced from 28% to 18%. So the tax variation of 10% should be passed on to the consumers by the sellers. However, the malls and stores were found selling at the MRP and were showing the bills at 10% discount, which is actually not true.

MRP and GST

They were found selling the products at the same MRP fixed before reduction of GST. "In both the cases consumers were cheated," he said. The state government issued a circular to the department across the state to verify the rates of the products in all the malls and stores. Accordingly, the raids were conducted at 15 places in Dakshina Kannada and criminal cases have been booked against five stores for flouting the rules, he said.