Businessman made to apologise for questioning GST rates, taxes

Two short video clips from the union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s visit to Coimbatore have gone viral on social media. In the first clip a businessman from Coimbatore is heard airing his grievances about taxes in general and GST in particular. The finance minister joined the laughter that followed before stating that she had no answer to the question. In the second clip, shot inside a room, the same businessman is heard tendering an apology to the union minister in the presence of another lady.

The owner of Sree Annapoorna, a popular vegetarian restaurant chain in Coimbatore, had said among other things that while he as a businessman had invested the money, hired the staff and taken the risk of running a business, the Government of India was taking it all away in taxes. ‘Today the Government of India is earning more than the broker (businessman)…I am investing everything; I am taking a whole lot of risk and the Government is taking away my entire profit…you are my sleeping partner…I am the working partner…the

Government imposes GST, stamp duty, IGST, STT, long-term capital gains tax…,” he went on to say.

He also pointed out the different rates of GST causing confusion. “The problem is that GST is applied differently to each item. For example, there is no GST on bun but if you put cream in it, GST becomes 18 per cent; because of this, customers say that we should give them bun and cream separately. Increase GST uniformly for all. They have put (a lower) 5 per cent GST on sweets and 12 per cent GST on spicy (savouries) because they eat a lot of sweets in North India… charge uniform GST for these. The computer itself is getting stuck in GST."

The businessman pointed out that after paying all his taxes, if he wanted to buy a house, he is expected not only to pay the entire money in white but also pay more GST on it. The GST for purchase of a housing property is 11 per cent in a city like Mumbai, he pointed out. He wondered if the finance minister could explain the anomalies and provide some relief.

Ms Sitharaman joined the mild laughter from the audience and replied that she actually had no answer to offer. She went on to joke, “A sleeping partner cannot answer sitting here”, provoking more laughter.

However, the second clip circulated by the BJP IT cell claimed to show the owner of the restaurant chain tendering an apology to the minister in private. He is heard saying that he was not affiliated to any political party. The businessman does not seem to be aware that the conversation was being filmed and recorded. Once this clip went viral, the social media in Tamil Nadu was flooded with indignant reactions. “Why would you film and release this video? To show the humiliation of a well-known businessman, only because he dared to ask a valid question?” asked several people. Lakshmi Ramachandran, TNCC spokesperson posted on X, “This is just too much. Just goes to show the intolerance of this govt towards any criticism. Threatening and forcing a senior person like him to apologise is shameful. If businessmen cannot share their problems with the visiting minister, what is the point of the interaction?”