FMCG woes: How Budget 2020 pushed demand revival further down the road

The Budget's incentives have ignored a large section of middle-class buyers

Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies are waking up to a new reality: The consumption slowdown could extend a little longer than expected since the Budget on February 1 has not given the middle class much room to loosen their purse strings just yet. 

Instead, as many FMCG executives say, it has pushed “hard choices” on people. “They have given money in one hand and taken it from the other,” says Adi Godrej, chairman, Godrej group, while speaking of the cuts in personal taxation for earnings up to Rs 15 lakh per annum.

The cuts in personal taxation across income brackets were