Initially I thought you were trying to switch the capacitors with the triacs. What are these 'expensive' snubbers you talk of? A snubber normally consists of a resistor and a capacitor. They can get expensive for large loads, for small loads like your talking about, 100R 5W and 100nF X2 mainscap is the average snubber. You could also use a suitably rated resistor to provide a static load to the triac.

I can't understand your cost issues - the 100kVAR capacitors are probably worth quite a few Rs. Its a bit like complaining about the cost of fuel when you have a mercedes!