Per-head budgets with the arithmetic shown, the GST rules that decide what a gift really costs you, six questions to ask any vendor, and how to plan the dates backwards.
If you have been handed a headcount, a budget and a date, the hard part is not choosing a gift. It is choosing one that will actually be used, that arrives in one piece, and that your finance team can book without a phone call. This guide covers all three, with the arithmetic shown.
Corporate gifting fails quietly. Nobody tells you the hamper went to a cupboard, or that the branded diary is in a drawer. The gifts that work are consumable, everyday and unambiguous — things a household would have bought anyway.
That is the case for food, and specifically for staples rather than novelties. A jar of ghee is opened within the week and finished within two months. A box of assorted specialities usually has one item the recipient wants and three they do not. If you are choosing between a larger assortment and a smaller quantity of one good thing, choose the good thing.
Below is our own live pricing, so it is checkable rather than indicative. Quantity prices apply automatically — 10% from each size’s minimum and 15% from 25 units.
| Size | Retail | From 10 units | From 25 units | 50 gifts cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Premium Desi Gir Cow A2 Ghee · 250 ml | ₹499 | ₹449 min 10 |
₹424 | ₹21,208 |
| Premium Desi Gir Cow A2 Ghee · 500 ml | ₹897 | ₹807 min 5 |
₹762 | ₹38,123 |
| Premium Desi Gir Cow A2 Ghee · 1 litre | ₹1,698 | ₹1,528 min 5 |
₹1,443 | ₹72,165 |
| Premium Desi Gir Cow A2 Ghee · 2.5 litre (dolchi) | ₹4,999 | ₹4,499 min 5 |
₹4,249 | ₹212,458 |
| Premium Desi Gir Cow A2 Ghee · 5 litre (dolchi) | ₹8,999 | ₹8,099 min 5 |
₹7,649 | ₹382,458 |
| Desi Cow A2 Ghee · 500 ml | ₹699 | ₹629 min 5 |
₹594 | ₹29,708 |
| Desi Cow A2 Ghee · 1 litre | ₹1,299 | ₹1,169 min 5 |
₹1,104 | ₹55,208 |
| Desi Cow A2 Ghee · 2.5 litre (dolchi) | ₹3,999 | ₹3,599 min 5 |
₹3,399 | ₹169,958 |
| Desi Cow A2 Ghee · 5 litre (dolchi) | ₹7,499 | ₹6,749 min 5 |
₹6,374 | ₹318,708 |
Prices include GST. Ghee ships free at every size.
For a large all-staff list the 500 ml jar is the usual choice; for managers, clients and long-service awards the 1 litre or a dolchi reads as a considered gift rather than a token. Mixing two tiers across one list is normal and costs nothing extra to arrange.
Two rules decide how a corporate gift is treated, and they pull in opposite directions:
Neither of these is advice for your particular books — ask your CA, and ask before you commit the budget rather than after. What you should insist on from any vendor is a proper tax invoice carrying your GSTIN and theirs.
Work back from the day the gifts must be in hand:
Two to three weeks of clear air before the festival is comfortable. The last week before Diwali is when every courier in the country is at capacity, and no vendor can buy you out of that.
We sell lab-tested A2 Gir cow ghee and single-origin spices, in glass, and ship across India every day. Gifting runs here start at five boxes and have no ceiling: a small client list and a company-wide Diwali run are the same process, scheduled differently. For gifting we do two things:
If ghee is not the right gift for your list, the honest answer is to say so and send you elsewhere — a gift that does not suit the recipient is a wasted budget whoever supplies it.
Most companies work to a band rather than a number: roughly ₹500–800 a head for a large all-staff list, ₹1,500–2,500 for managers and long-service staff, and ₹3,000 upward for clients and partners. What matters more than the figure is whether the thing gets used. A ₹600 jar of ghee that a family cooks with for two months lands better than a ₹1,200 hamper of things nobody opens.
Generally no. Section 17(5)(h) of the CGST Act blocks input tax credit on goods disposed of by way of gift, and that is what a Diwali gift is. Separately, Schedule I treats gifts up to ₹50,000 per employee in a financial year as not a supply, so no output tax arises on them either. Ask your CA before you assume either way — but budget on the GST-inclusive price, not net of credit.
Count back from the date they must arrive: three to seven days for delivery across India, plus packing time, plus however long your approval and payment takes. Two to three weeks before the festival is comfortable; the week before is not, because every courier in India is at capacity at exactly that moment.
The FSSAI licence number on the label, a lab report for the batch, who actually delivers and whether it is tracked, what happens to a parcel that comes back undelivered, whether they will invoice with your GSTIN, and how they would schedule a run of your size around your date. A vendor who cannot answer all six should not have your list of employee home addresses.
Yes, and for a distributed team it is usually the better answer. You send one spreadsheet of names and addresses; each box travels separately with its own tracking. The thing to check is whether the vendor validates the pincodes before you pay — an address the courier will not serve is much cheaper to find in a spreadsheet than on packing day.
It is if it gets used and if it survives the journey. The failure modes are breakage, short shelf life and things that need refrigeration. Ghee has a twelve-month shelf life, needs no refrigeration and is used daily in most Indian kitchens — which is why it outperforms a hamper of assorted items that has one thing in it the recipient actually wants.
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