18% GST on parathas! Kejriwal says, ‘Even Britishers did not tax food’

Taking a dig at BJP, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo said, ” Even the Britishers did not impose a tax on food items”.

The AAP leader blamed GST for inflation in the country and added, “Biggest reason for inflation in the country today is the high GST levied by the central government. It should be reduced and people should get rid of inflation”.

Yesterday, Gujarat’s AAAR held that 18% GST is applicable on parathas. The two-member bench of Vivek Ranjan and Milind Torawane observed that parathas were different forms of’ plain roti‘ or ‘Khakra‘ and cannot be treated as or covered under the category of plain chapatti or roti as they need to be heated before consumption. The Bench added that the appropriate classification of parathas would be under Chapter Heading 2106.

Taking note of the instruction mentioned on the packaging the Gujarat AAAR observed that to heat parathas require 3-4 minutes which helps in changing the colour of parathas and only then they become ready for consumption.

“As compared to roti or chapati or items falling under chapter heading 1905, which are ready to eat and do not require any further processing before consumption, the appellant’s products have to be cooked before the same can be consumed,” the AAAR said and disposed of the appeal.

Appellant supplies eight varieties of paratha – Mixed vegetable, onion, methi, aloo, laccha, mooli, malabar and plain. The key ingredient of all the varieties of it is wheat flour, while other ingredients are water, vegetable oil, salt, antioxidant, etc. These parathas are supplied and sold in packed condition.

However, on the appellant’s contention parathas are similar to roti,m the bench said they found only one common ingredient among the product that is wheat flour, apart from water.

Therefore the bench said that “It is clear that based on ingredients used in the appellant’s product and roti or chapati, the composition of both is very different from each other”.

Besides, the bench pointed out that even the plain paratha apart from whole wheat flour and water contains margarine, salt, emulsifying agent, edible vegetable oil, and bread improver.

However, roti or chapati is consumed directly but the parathas manufactured and supplied by the appellant require to be cooked before the same can be consumed.

“We, therefore, find that parathas supplied by the appellant, will not fall under the category of roti or chapati,” the court added.

The appellant said pizza bread, rusk, and toasted bread are under 5% GST and readymade parathas are under 18%. The bench said that packaged paratha can’t attract the same GST as packaged chapati as chapatis are ready-to-eat and their ingredients are also different.