Choose Your Popcorn Wisely! Tax Applicable

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has issued clarity on three different slabs for ‘popcorn.’ This opened a lot of trolls and memes against her and the GST Council. At its 55th meeting on Saturday, the GST Council clarified the tax structure on popcorn. Nirmala Sitharaman explained that caramelized popcorn, with added sugar, is taxed differently from salted and plain popcorn due to its classification as a sugar confectionery.

According to the GST council, the below slab rates will immediately come to effect.

Unpacked and unlabelled salted popcorn: 5% GST
Pre-packed and labeled ready-to-eat popcorn: 12% GST
Caramelized popcorn: 18% GST

“However, when popcorn is mixed with sugar, thereby changing its character to sugar confectionary (Ex, caramel popcorn), it would be classifiable under sugar confectionary and attract 18 percent GST,” she stated.

“When you talk outside, it looks silly… but during discussions with states in the Fitment Committee on every item, it is clearly mentioned that things with added sugar are treated differently… be it drinks, carbonated drinks, juice… whatever has added sugar. This is why, till the time popcorn is salted, it attracts five percent GST. But when it has added caramelized sugar, it is no longer nankeen. Hence, its rate is different,” Nirmala Sitharaman revealed.

On the other hand, there are a lot of memes on this already.