A hotelier in Coimbatore has expressed before finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman his exasperation with the Centre’s GST that the Opposition and many small businessmen have often described as flawed, and have had to apologise to the minister within hours.

Srinivasan, who runs the Annapoorna hotel chain, had told Sitharaman during an interaction with traders and small businesses on Wednesday that while a plain bun does not come under the ambit of GST, accompaniments and other bakery products attract tax rates varying from 18 per cent to 28 per cent.

While Sitharaman gave a patient hearing, her facial expressions in videos widely shared on social media led many to believe she was not happy.

Srinivasan pointed out that while there was no GST on the plain bun, wafering it with a little bit of cream invites 18 per cent GST. “My customers are not amused; they say give us the bun and cream separately and we will spread it on the bun at home,” he said in Tamil, triggering peels of laughter.

Srinivasan said sweets attracted 5 per cent GST but savouries were taxed at 12 per cent. He claimed that local BJP MLA Vanathi Sreenivasan, who was at the venue, often expressed annoyance at the multiple GST rates for food items.

“For the same family we have to generate different bills, depending on what they wish to eat,” the hotelier said, urging the finance minister to simplify the GST rates.

At one stage, Sitharaman was seen smiling when hotelier Srinivasan quipped: “Even our computer is unable to handle when we have to give multiple bills to the same family who dine with us.”

“GST is not state-specific,” the finance minister said. However, Sitharaman appeared taken aback when the hotelier took the MLA’s name and said the lawmaker often attributed the low GST rate on sweets and a higher one on savouries to “people in north India consuming a lot of sweets”.

Hotelier Srinivasan later met Sitharaman and apologised to her, according to reports, after the local BJP leadership told him that his manner of addressing the finance minister was in poor taste and that he should not have taken the name of the MLA.

Vanathi called a media conference at Coimbatore on Friday and denied the hotelier’s claims on her.

The ruling DMK and the Congress asked whether the hotelier was “forced” to apologise to the finance minister.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi posted on X: “When the owner of a small business, like Annapoorna restaurant in Coimbatore, asks our public servants for a simplified GST regime, his request is met with arrogance and
outright disrespect.”