Memes are being made, Finance Minister is being personally targeted, popcorn tax comedy is going on. Of course, they know they shouldn’t be taxing so blatantly. But why are they doing it?
In the 55th GST council meeting, the Union Finance Minister has recommended that ready to eat popcorn which is mixed with salt and spices are classifiable under HS 2106 90 99 and attracts 5% GST if supplied as other than pre-packaged and labelled and 12% GST if supplied as pre-packaged and labelled.
However, when popcorn is mixed with sugar thereby changing its character to sugar confectionery (e.g. caramel popcorn), it would be classifiable under HS 1704 90 90 and attract 18% GST. It has been decided to regularise the issues for the past on “as is where is” basis.