New Delhi: Amid the ongoing unemployment woes in the country, iconic biscuit and confectionery firm Parle Products is likely to fire somewhere between 8,000-10,000 employees if the ongoing slump in consumption continues, hinting towards an economic slowdown. The development comes at the time when several other industries such as automobile, real estate, retail and others are reeling under tremendous pressure of the slumping demand forcing industry players to cut short the production and shed off its employees.

Currently, growth of India's gross domestic product (GDP) has come down to 6.8 per cent in 2018-19 fiscal - making it the slowest since 2014-15.

Coming back to biscuits and confectionery industry, some leading players of market including popular brands such as Parle-G, Monaco, Hide and Seek and others have a turnover close to Rs 10,000 crore and they employ somewhere around 1 lakh people combined. Parle alone operates at least 10 company-owned manufacturing units and over 129 third party plants.

Speaking about the news of layoffs,  category head of Parle Products, Mayank Shah told Economic Times that if the company does not get support from the government in terms of goods and services tax (GST) then it would have no choice to but let go around 10,000 employees.

“We have sought reduction in the goods and services tax (GST) on biscuits priced at Rs 100 per kg or below, which are typically sold in packs of Rs 5 and below, but if the government doesn’t provide that stimulus, then we have no choice but to let go of 8,000-10,000 people from our workforce across factories as slowing sales are severely impacting us,” he said.

Reports also suggest that Parle, popular for its Parle-G and Marie brand of biscuits, is not the only food product company to witness a slowdown in growth. Earlier this month, biscuits maker Britannia Industries Ltd's Managing Director Varun Berry said consumers were 'thinking twice' about buying products worth just Rs 5. "Obviously, there is some serious issue in the economy," Berry had said.

This massive slump in the industry was widely visible after the roll out of new tax regime in July 2017, as all biscuits were brought under the 18 per cent GST rate, an increase of 6 per cent in the tax slab compared to the previous tax regime. This increase in GST rate forced the companies to raise prices which negatively impacted their sales. Parle, too, had hiked prices by about 5 per cent, which led to sales fall considerably, the daily quoted Shah as saying.

Even the market researcher firm Nielsen had predicted a dip in growth of the FMCG sector last month to 9-10 per cent in 2019 from its previous outlook of 11-12 per cent and was reasoned to be on the backdrop of a slowdown in the rural economy of the country.