This feeling was more prevalent among the lower social strata and lower income households. Said CGSI chairman N G Wagle: "This survey conducted by the Indian Market Research Bureau has objectively confirmed our fears about the strong inflationary tendencies in the 1998 budget. The worst thing is it will hit the common man the hardest as a very high excise duty has been imposed on items like tea, spices and cooking fat".

"The tax on packaged foods is totally unjustified because packaging preventsadulteration and a host of other evils that our organisation has been combating since 1996 and hope the government will totally withdraw this unfair levy of eight per cent at the earliest", he added.

According to the poll, lower income households, defined as those with a monthly income of less than Rs 3,500 per month, were particularly critical of the budget provisions relating to packaged food items, particularly tea, anticipating a sharp all-round price rise.

Over 1,200 consumers in Delhi, Lucknow, Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Chennai were polled, in addition to 114 retailers of packaged tea and 71 retailers of loose tea.

Quoting the example of tea, over 60 per cent of the retailers polled said that lower income groups bought its packaged form, though in quantities smaller than those purchased by the more affluent sections of society. The poorer sections bought the 50 gm and 100 gm pack sizes while the others purchased the packs of 250 gm or more. About 52 per cent of the retailers fear that this impost willforce people to either turn to loose tea or buy less of their preferred brand.

According to the data published earlier by the Indian Readership Survey (IRS), 45.3 per cent of households with a monthly income of less than Rs 3,000 and 69.4 per cent of households with a monthly income of between Rs 3,001 and Rs 5,000 use packet tea. Packet tea is also consumed by over 46.3 per cent of tea consuming rural households in the country.