In a first, housing society in Mulund celebrates GST-free Ganesha festival

The Srinivas Ganesh Utsav Mandal in Mulund has a history of celebrating eco-friendly Ganpati festival. This year, the mandal has taken up GST as its theme.

The mandal comprising 50-odd members decided to have a Ganesha idol made of all the items that are exempt under GST. "We were in two minds whether to go for Swachcha Bharat theme or GST. Since GST was being talked about by everyone as they were filing returns we opted for that," said Dipesh Yadav, another member who is the one of the main artists behind the idol.

The society has used over 10 of the 81 GST-free items. These include earthernware, salt, pooja products, betelnuts, khadi yarn, slate, bangles, musical instruments, phoolbhari jhadu and Gandhi topi among others.

All of these will be dismantled and given away instead of an immersion.

Talking about the branded Tata salt bags that have been used to create the belly of the idol, Kalpesh Lodaya, member of the mandal, said, "We wanted people to point out that branded salt is under GST. This is why we have a tag line — Ignore the one odd point but look at entirety."

"People will either praise or criticise GST. In my field of Ayurvedic medicines, taxes have gone up from six per cent value added tax to 12 per cent GST. Our message is that do not look at one thing but the larger prosperity and good that it will bring," said Yadav, explaining the symbolism of the idea of their tagline.