Leading dairy and food brand Amul has announced significant price reductions across more than 700 of its products, including popular items like ghee, butter, ice cream, and various snacks. This strategic move, effective from September 22, aims to directly pass on the benefits of recent Goods and Services Tax (GST) reforms to its consumers. The Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), Amul's parent organization, released a statement detailing these revised prices across a broad spectrum of its offerings, informing trade partners, distributors, Amul parlours, and retailers nationwide.

The price revisions encompass a wide array of categories, ensuring a comprehensive benefit for consumers. Affected product lines include butter, ghee, UHT milk, ice cream, cheese, paneer, chocolates, bakery range items, frozen dairy and potato snacks, condensed milk, peanut spread, and malt-based drinks. This extensive reduction highlights Amul's commitment to making its products more accessible and affordable in the Indian market.

Specific examples illustrate the magnitude of these price cuts. Butter, for instance, will see its 100 gm pack price reduced from ₹62 to ₹58. Ghee will experience a notable ₹40 price cut, dropping from ₹650 per litre to ₹610 per litre. A kilogram of cheese block will now cost ₹545, down from ₹575, representing a ₹30 reduction. Paneer (200g) will be priced at ₹95, a decrease from its current ₹99. Amul ice cream prices will now range from ₹9 to ₹550, a reduction from the previous ₹10 to ₹600 range. Similarly, Amul Protein products will be available between ₹145 and ₹3,690, down from the earlier ₹150 to ₹4,100. Frozen snacks will see prices ranging from ₹42 to ₹380, compared to the former ₹45 to ₹400, and bakery products will be priced from ₹10 to ₹270, a reduction from ₹11 to ₹300.

However, it is important to note that the prices of pouch and packaged fresh milk will remain unchanged. Jayen Mehta, MD of GCMMF, clarified on September 11 that fresh pouch milk was not subject to GST even before the reforms, always having a zero per cent GST rate, hence no reduction is proposed in its prices.

GCMMF, an organization owned by 36 lakh farmers, anticipates that these price reductions will significantly boost the demand for its dairy products. The cooperative believes this will particularly stimulate consumption of ice cream, cheese, and butter, categories where per capita consumption in India remains relatively low, thus presenting a substantial growth opportunity. This expected increase in demand is projected to contribute positively to GCMMF's turnover. In the last fiscal year, the cooperative, marketing under the 'Amul' brand, reported an 11 per cent increase in revenue, reaching ₹65,911 crore, primarily driven by higher sales volumes across all categories.

These price adjustments by Amul are a direct consequence of the Goods and Services Tax reforms announced by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on September 3, following the 56th GST Council meeting. During this meeting, several items were moved to the nil GST regime, while many others were shifted to lower 5% or 18% slabs from previously higher rates, enabling companies like Amul to pass on these tax benefits to end-consumers and spur overall market activity.