GST pushes century-old sweet shops to adopt corp culture

Kolkata: Traditional confectioners of Kolkata that have resisted change for over a century are at long last being forced to corporatise following the introduction of GST.

Spared of any taxes courtesy the cottage industry status they enjoyed, most sweet shops carried out business the same way for decades. There was no concept of handing any bills or receipts to customers. Transactions happened only in cash, even post demonetisation.

But, with the rollout of GST from July 1, heritage confectioners like

Girish Chandra Dey

& Nakur Chandra Nandy, Bhim Nag and Nalin Chandra Das have been jolted into developing an accounting system that includes bill generation for customers.

Rana Nandy of Girish Chandra Dey & Nakur Chandra Nandy admits the shop that has remained unchanged since it was set up a decade before the Sepoy Mutiny in 1857, has no option but to corporatise.

"We have no way other than accepting GST and what it entails. That will mean a lot of complication but it is also an opportunity to come up to date with the present time," he said.

In fact, the brand that has remained restricted to a single store is now contemplating expanding like its south Kolkata rival,

Balaram Mullick

& Radharaman Mullick have in a major way over the past two decades.

"Everyone wants to expand the business. We haven't done yet but there will be an opportunity now. Let's see how things work out," Nandy remarked.

Sudip Mullick, who led the corporatisation of Balaram Mullick from a single grimy shop in Bhowanipore's

Jagubabu Bazar

to multiple glitzy outlets, says GST will force many other shops out of inertia.

"Unlike some shops where a bill is grudgingly handed only when the customer asks, we felt a bill was a customer's right and introduced it long ago. That is now helping us while those who don't have any billing mechanism is struggling with implementation of GST," said Mullick.

Not so for Banchharam

Sweets

, a not-so-old south Kolkata brand that has expanded across the city and introduced billing. It has created a new team to integrate the various slabs of GST with the products on its offering in its billing system. "We could have started collecting GST the very next day after it was announced but desisted till there is complete clarity," said Subhajit Ghosh of Banchharam.

But Nalin Chandra Das that has been selling sweets for 200 years is yet to come to terms with the fact that it has to pay tax in the new GST regime. Tapan Das rues that the sector that had remained outside the purview of taxation industry had now been slapped with GST. "We will begin billing by the end of this month or beginning August," he said.

On Thursday, the West Bengal Mistanna Byabasayee Samity, an association of the traditional confectioners, held a day long meeting to find a solution to what they are calling, “the biggest crisis in the past three decades”. Samity members plan to meet state finance minister Amit Mitra and lobby for a full waiver. “We sell perishable items that get spoilt in nine hours. We should be treated like perishable items like vegetables and fish that do not attract GST,” a member argued.

Though they are pressing for a total GST holiday, may in the industry realise that the demand is unrealistic. Some even feel the regularization was essential because shop owners fixed rates arbitrarily and evaded income tax in the absence of bills.

Heritage rossogolla maker K C Das that has been in business for 125 years has converted to the GST system. Dhiman Das, the spokesperson of the landmark brand, said the expansion to Bengaluru and Chennai led to the company making the switch to modern accounting habits years before GST. "We have upgraded the software to include all the slabs that have been specified in GST," he said.