Cost of living: Why are your groceries so expensive and what taxes are on them?

Nowadays money runs out very quickly when you go outside to buy monthly groceries like buying tea leaves, pulses, and essential food items for your home,  the other items and cosmetics look like a madman’s wish which is very difficult to handle in this modern era. Samia is a housewife, she is not too rich, just a middle-class woman who is very cautious about her monthly budget.

Anbraib Zafar also expresses his similar views about the exceeded household monthly expenses. She lives with her parents and does a job in a private company and gets a cool salary because household expenses are involved in her duty and she works a lot to fulfill the monthly expenses of her family.

Every second person seems to be crying about inflation during the last few months, but the various causes of inflation in the country, including depreciation of the rupee, increase in petrol and electricity prices, and the situation after the recent floods, have become very common. 

The taxes imposed by the government on grocery items have taken the useful grocery items away from the reach of customers. So if you are tense about running out of money every month to buy grocery items and want to know what is the reason behind it, let;s take an overview of the reason why it is happening.

What are the taxes imposed on grocery items?

All over the world currently has various taxes on food items, cosmetics and other items, some of which are direct and indirect. Consumers have to pay general sales tax directly on eating out or shopping at any grocery store in the country. 

This year the budget presented by the government has a 17% tax on grocery items and since then consumers have been paying this tax on products such as packet food, soaps, and shampoos, which means even if you want to buy toothpaste you have to pay extra tax on it.  On the other hand, the taxes imposed on imported goods like bakery items, and dairy products; taxes do not appear on these products directly but are included in the price of these goods.

That is, if you buy double roti, the increased price includes that 17 percent tax and you are paying another 17 percent as GST on it. Apart from this, the government has also imposed a 12% tax on textiles and garments. Withholding tax is levied on imported goods which the importer is selling at the market rate price of the goods and it is not visible to the consumer while the other tax is general sales tax.

Earlier there was 17% GST on non-food items, but at the end of the previous government’s tenure, 17% GST was also imposed on food and drink items for the first time in the country’s history, and this is one of the causes of inflation. is the main reason. A senior Finance Ministry official said on the condition of anonymity that the consumer currently has to pay 17% GST tax directly on the purchase of grocery items, but on import duty, withholding tax, and manufacturing of raw materials. 

There are many taxes, including taxes, which are not visible to the common citizen, but the manufacturers put their burden on the pocket of the common consumer. Furthermore,

Instead of paying hand-to-hand money after buying grocery items, you want to pay through AT, or credit then a point of sale -tax of 1 rupees per thousand has been imposed.