From The President

My Dear BCAS Family,

Diwali – the festival of lights, is just behind us. I would like to take this opportunity to wish all a Very Happy Diwali. Traditionally, Diwali falls just before the onset of winter and marks the beginning of the new year for many of us. It also symbolises the spirit of spring cleaning, by discarding old or unused items and acquiring new items with the ultimate hope of ushering prosperity. This year, the celebration started early with the ushering in of path breaking changes and reforms in GST popularly known GST 2.0 effective from 22nd September, 2025. The most significant change is in the duty structure with fewer tax slabs resulting in reduction in rates to as low as 5% from the existing 12% or 18% for items like personal care and hygiene products, packaged food and everyday staples and health and medical items reducing prices of day to day items bringing cheer to a vast majority of consumers. Further, the reduction in the rates of consumer appliances and electronic items and vehicles from 28% to 18% will also bring a lot of cheer since these items are generally bought during Diwali as part of the spring cleaning exercise. Accordingly, I feel it is apt to reflect o