India’s Diwali 2025 festive season witnessed an unprecedented sales surge, hitting an all-time high of Rs 5.40 lakh crore in goods along with Rs 65,000 crore in services, marking the largest retail and trading turnover in the nation’s history. This remarkable 25 percent jump from last year’s Rs 4.25 lakh crore sales during Navratri to Diwali was driven majorly by the government’s strategic GST reforms, which slashed tax rates on over 400 essential consumer and retail products like confectionery, footwear, home decor, ready-made garments, and consumer durables.
The simplification to primarily two GST slabs of 5 percent and 18 percent boosted affordability, fueling purchase enthusiasm nationwide. Surveys by the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) revealed that approximately 72 percent of traders directly credited these GST cuts for the spike in sales volume. Particularly notable was the revival of physical retail, which constituted nearly 85 percent of festival sales, signaling a significant comeback of brick-and-mortar shopping over online sales.
Another transformative driver was the surge in rural and semi-urban markets that contributed 28 percent of the total sales, reflecting the expanding economic reach beyond metropolitan hubs. This shift highlights increasing purchasing power and consumer confidence in India’s smaller towns and villages.
Key sectors reaping benefits included automobiles—with companies like Maruti Suzuki reporting a 50 percent increase in bookings—and consumer electronics, where appliance sales soared. The overall festive shopping frenzy also generated about 50 lakh temporary jobs across logistics, retail assistance, and delivery sectors, underpinning a broad-based economic revival.
Diwali 2025’s record-breaking sales set a new benchmark, showcasing how policy reforms, coupled with rising consumer confidence across urban and rural India, are reshaping the country’s retail landscape in a way that blends tradition with modern economic momentum.
