As Paneer Butter Masala trends on Twitter, Shashi Tharoor digs in

While Twitter users started calculating the GST of Paneer Butter Masala with packaged paneer and masala now under 5% GST, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor commented on the ‘folly’ of GST.

Published on: Jul 21, 2022, 06:44:58 IST

By HT News Desk | Written by Poulomi Ghosh

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Amid the row over 5% GST on packaged daily use food items like curd, paneer etc, Paneer Butter Masala started trending on Twitter in the form of a modern-day maths problem as to what the overall GST of the dish will be. Congress leader Shashi Tharoor joined the conversation over paneer butter masala and said the WhatsApp forward is brilliant as this 'skewers the folly of the GST'. Also Read: 'Why should the poor not aspire?' Cong's 10 points on Nirmala Sitharaman's explanation of GST

Shashi Tharoor tweets as Paneer Butter Masala trends on Twitter.  (PTI)

Why was Paneer Butter Masala trending in the first place? The Centre has recently imposed 5% GST on daily-use food items only if they are packaged. Packaged paneer, curd, and masala have come under this. As political barb over the GST continued, social media users had their moment of fun in solving this maths problem: If the GST on Paneer is 5%, butter is 12% and masala is 5%, then what will be the GST on paneer butter masala?

The jury is still out as economic experts said there are many factors to decide the GST -- whether one is eating the dish in an AC restaurant or a non-Ac restaurant, or whether the restaurant is using unpackaged paneer, butter and masala which have no GST.

The Congress of Wednesday issued a statement slamming the government for the 5% GST and said the decision was not unanimous and there was no discussion with the state finance ministers. "Why should not the poorer consumers aspire to buy pre-packaged and labelled goods? The Modi government is penalising aspiration and a desire to buy more hygienically packed goods," the Congress said. It also asked whether there was any demand from producers and sellers of these products to impose a GST.

The BJP gave back to the criticism and said the Congress is shedding crocodile tears while it imposed VAT on rice when it was in power.

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