Popcorn to incur 18% GST, rules Telangana AAR
Mumbai: The issue of whether ready-to-eat popcorn should be taxable at a goods and services tax (GST) rate of 18% or lower has ‘popped’ up several times before the various state -level benches of the Authority for Advance Rulings (AAR). Now in a recent ruling, given in the case of the Secunderabad-based company Agro Tech Foods, the Telangana GST-AAR bench has held that ‘ready-to-eat popcorn’ will be classified under tariff heading ‘1904’ and the GST levy would be 18%.
The applicant company sold ready-to-eat popcorn that was either flavoured, such as caramel, or plain popcorn. It submitted that popcorn is prepared by “swelling of maize corn by heating the same” and should be classified under tariff heading ‘2008’. This covered preparations of vegetables, fruits, nuts or other parts of plants and attracted a lower GST rate. Or in yet other cases, another tariff heading had been applied. Thus, Agro Tech Foods sought a ruling to obtain the correct classification and the applicable GST rate.
Earlier, GST-AAR benches of Gujarat and Maharashtra also held that an 18% rate applies.
Source: Time of India
