NEW DELHI – India’s transfer to tax popcorn in another way primarily based on its sugar or spice content material has drawn criticism from the opposition and sparked social media outrage, with two former authorities financial advisers questioning the tax system launched in 2017.
The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council, chaired by the finance minister and together with state representatives, introduced on Saturday that non-branded popcorn blended with salt and spices would entice a 5% GST, pre-packaged and branded popcorn 12%, and caramel popcorn, categorised as a sugar confectionery, 18%.
The differential charges got here into impact instantly, ending confusion over charges as popcorn was taxed in another way throughout states.
Explaining the rationale behind the choice to tax caramel popcorn at 18%, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman stated that any product with added sugar is taxed in another way.
The announcement, nonetheless, sparked a social media storm on Sunday, with opposition politicians, economists and supporters of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s authorities criticising the transfer and others creating memes and poking enjoyable at it.
“Complexity is a bureaucrat’s delight and residents’ nightmare,” India’s earlier Chief Economic Adviser Okay V Subramanian wrote on X. He questioned the rationale of the choice he stated will contribute minimally to tax revenues, however inconvenience residents.
His predecessor, Arvind Subramanian, stated “the folly is compounded as a result of as a substitute of not less than shifting within the route of simplicity we’re veering to larger complexity, issue of enforcement and simply irrationality”.
One broadly circulated publish on X confirmed a picture of a branded “salt caramel” popcorn packet and stated how it might ship the taxman right into a tizzy calculating the tax fee on it.
Jairam Ramesh, chief and spokesman of the principle opposition Congress get together, stated the “absurdity of three completely different tax slabs for popcorn below GST … solely brings to mild a deeper subject that the rising complexity of a system that was purported to be a Good and Simple Tax”.
A finance ministry spokesperson, the GST Council Secretariat and a spokesman for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party didn’t reply to requests for touch upon the controversy.
The GST system has run into related controversies for its tax classifications prior to now and confronted questions though not on this scale.
Previous controversies have concerned taxing chapatis or unleavened Indian flatbread in another way from layered flatbreads, completely different charges for curd and yogurt, and cream bun versus bun and cream served individually.
(Reporting by Nikunj Ohri; Editing by YP Rajesh (Reuters))
(Disclaimer: Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV workers and is printed from a syndicated feed.)
