Tirupur : The famous Oothukuli butter, a much sought-after item during the Pongal season, has recorded poor sales volume and turnover which has dampened the spirits of the producers of the most popular butter variety in Tamil Nadu.
Tirupur : The famous Oothukuli butter, a much sought-after item during the Pongal season, has recorded poor sales volume and turnover which has dampened the spirits of the producers of the most popular butter variety in Tamil Nadu.
The low sales volume has been attributed to the high tariffs of the GST regime and the increasing production of butter in Northern Indian states. The Oothukuli producers say that earlier, orders from Mumbai, Delhi and Calcutta used to pour in which led to increased sales volumes during the Pongal season, but this time around the sales volume has dwindled owing to high GST.
“The introduction of GST has sounded a death knell to our cottage industry. While we sold 100 tins in a single day, now it has come down to just about 30 to 40 tins. Even 15 kg of butter is levied with Rs.700 GST, which led to orders gradually fading away,” say producers who prepare the butter as a cottage industry product in Oothukuli, in Tiruppur district.
The sales volume which used to touch a high during festival seasons like Pongal has dwindled to such an extent that the poor patronage has even led to lesser working hours for the workforce involved in the butter making process. “We get only 4 to 5 days of work every week, even during Pongal festival, which is very rare. Our income has also dwindled due to lack of orders for the famed butter,” lament the workers.
