Veeana’s Puja Items & Puja Oil Are A Hit Industry Struggling With Price, Payments, & Gst: Jatin Chheda
Mr Jatin Chheda, head ofVeeana Perfumery Works LLP,Mumbai, believes that the incenseand devotional product industry isgrappling with pricing, payments,and GST issues. He stressed anurgent need for an industry-wideconsensus and the formation ofclear regulations through an All-India-level association. He also emphasised the importance of seeking relief from the government.
In an exclusive conversation with Sugandh India, Mr Chheda stated that there has been no improvement in price wars and pending payments. He insisted that the industry must collectively agree on rules to bring stability. To tackle the credit problem, the industry shouldforce traders who are withholding payments. Speakingabout the GST issue, he said that the recent GST surveyclassified various products, and the GST rate on pooja oil,which earlier stood at 5%, was first increased to 12% and later to 18%. He added that clearing outstanding GST dues and penalties is becoming a bottleneck. To this, he suggested that the association take the lead and intervene.
Veeana Perfumery Works LLP has been active in theincense and fragrance industry for three generations. Thecompany manufactures incense products ranging fromagarbatti and dhoop to various pooja-related materials.
Three generations ago, Mr Chheda’s family madethreads for floral garlands offered to deities and,in grocery stores and laundries, for tying packets.threads. Under the Veeana PerfumeryWorks LLP brand, they producea complete range of devotionalproducts. The company currentlymanufactures agarbatti packs pricedbetween ₹10 and ₹1,100 (for 10-kadibundles) and also makes productsranging from ₹600–700 per kg topremium variants priced at ₹7,000–8,000 per kilo.
In response to a question aboutplans, Mr Jatin Chheda said thatthe company is actively workingon increasing the production ofbamboo-less products across variousqualities and price ranges. Heexplained to Sugandh India the Bamboo imports, he continuedthat during the thread-making process, thevillagers took the leftover cotton waste tomake ruibatti (cotton wicks). They neverpaid for it, though. To counteract thisfreelancing, the family employed a fewwomen to start producing cotton wicks athome as a business. Their venture gainedmomentum and gradually expanded intomanufacturing all kinds of products relatedto incense and devotional use. However, itall began with cotton wicks. Today, underthe Veeana Perfumery brand, the companymanufactures nearly 300 types of devotionalproducts—including incense sticks,agarbattis, dhoop, cups, cones, pooja oil andghee, camphor, haldi, kumkum, gulal, andsindoor.
Mr Jatin Chheda told Sugandh India thatthe company is focusing on expanding thereach of its products across seven states—supplying Mumbai, Thane, and all ofMaharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Gujarat. Next,distribution has also begun in Uttar Pradesh,Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha, and Kolkata.
He stated that their highest-selling product isVeeana Pooja Oil, launched around 7–8 yearsago. Due to rising demand, they had initiallyopted for contract manufacturing. However,since establishing their plant in 2021, theyhave taken control of production. He sharedthat the company was named [initially] LalitTrade Mart, which used to manufacturefrom China and Vietnam are banned, themarket will shift entirely towards bamboo-lessagarbattis. He drew a parallel with the earlierrestriction on agarbatti imports. Mr. Chhedastated that restrictions on importing bamboomay be implemented soon. India, he added, stilldoes not produce enough bamboo to meet thedomestic demand for agarbatti manufacturing.
Moreover, the bamboo grown in India hasclosely spaced nodes, making it unsuitable foragarbatti machines, unlike the bamboo fromChina and Vietnam, which has widely spacednodes. He also noted growing objections of areligious nature to the burning of bamboo incertain rituals. Despite this, agarbatti usageremains widespread in many states, includingMaharashtra. He highlighted that the Jaincommunity, in particular, prefer bamboo-lessproducts. In response to another question, he saidthat the company currently exports agarbattis andother devotional items in the Emirates, the US,the UK, the Caribbean, and Mauritius, especiallyfor the Indian diaspora.
