3 min readNew DelhiMar 9, 2026 06:23 PM IST
The Indian government spent Rs 88.74 crore on advertisements to publicise the Goods and Services Tax (GST) rate cuts that came into effect on September 22, 2025, the finance ministry told Parliament on Monday.
“It is submitted that the total expenditure done by Government on advertising for GST Bachat Utsav is Rs 88.74 Crore,” Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary said in a written response to a question in the Lok Sabha.
“Based on inputs received from the field formations under Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs, it is observed that these benefits have largely been passed on to the end-consumers post GST rate reduction,” Chaudhary added.
In its 56th meeting on September 3, 2025, the GST Council had decided and announced a sweeping rationalisation of the indirect tax system starting later that month on September 22. This included the simplification of the regime into a two-tier structure of 5% and 18%, which Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had then said was carried out “with a focus on the common man”. “Every tax levied on common man’s daily use items has gone through a rigorous look into. And, in most cases, the rates have come down drastically,” she had said on September 3.
While companies offered steep discounts, extra grammage, and various other deals to entice customers and sell their stocks in the run up to the September 22 deadline, they also went on an advertising blitz to show how much they would be reducing prices by once the lower GST rates came into effect. The government, too, heavily advertised in newspapers and other media to inform the public about the GST rate cuts.
“Besides, Frequently Asked Questions were also prepared and uploaded on CBIC website to guide consumers to call National Consumer Helpline or register queries/complaints on the Integrated Grievance Redressal Mechanism (INGRAM) portal in case they have queries/complaints regarding not receiving benefits of GST rate changes,” Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary further said in his response to the Lok Sabha question on Monday.
According to data from the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), India’s headline retail inflation rate based on the Consumer Price Index fell to an all-time low of 0.25% in October as per the old data series that had 2012 as the base year for prices. Meanwhile, real GDP growth as per the new series with 2022-23 as the base year declined to 7.8% in the October-December 2025 quarter from 8.4% in the previous three years, although Private Final Consumption Expenditure – a proxy for household consumption – rose 8.7%, up from an 8% increase in July-September 2025.
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