Overview

• Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said price reductions from GST 2.0 have been passed through on all 54 tracked daily-use items, with some categories seeing larger-than-cut declines.
• Initial exceptions include certain Portland cement brands and a few dairy items, with officials engaging companies to complete the pass-through.
• Festive demand spiked: passenger vehicle dispatches hit 3.72 lakh in September, two-wheeler sales reached 21.6 lakh, air-conditioner sales doubled on day one, and TV sales rose 30–35%, while electronics saw 20–25% higher Navratri sales year-on-year.
• Authorities logged 3,169 consumer grievances related to the cuts, forwarding 3,075 cases to CBIC nodal officers for action, with 94 resolved by the consumer affairs department.
• Ministers project consumption to rise by more than 10% this year—about Rs 20 lakh crore—with RBI and IMF growth forecasts revised up to 6.8% and 6.6% respectively, and officials highlighting strengthening electronics manufacturing and exports.