GST impact on pharma and FMCG firms: Is taxing freebies legally tenable?

Freebies/extras cannot qualify as 'gifts' because the consideration for them is in-built in the price, Sudipta Bhattacharjee says.

Sudipta Bhattacharjee 

Investigations against freebies/extras being provided by various pharma and FMCG companies have been in news, of late. Recently, even banks faced investigation/notices against alleged ‘free of cost’ services. There was an immense criticism of this move and finally, a favourable clarification was issued by the government for banks.

However, ‘free’ supplies it seems will continue to remain a ‘red flag’ for tax authorities. After banks, it appears that the pharma and FMCG companies are now on the radar. Two broad types of schemes can be discussed in ...

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First Published: Sun, July 29 2018. 21:55 IST