A gentle squeeze and a load of cream spills out... In news for all the wrong reasons, Annapoorna, a popular chain of hotels in Coimbatore has shared a video on its social media channel promoting its viral product – cream bun.
The Annapoorna Hotel posted a reel about its cream bun on its Instagram channel on Friday. The reel was shared with the tagline ‘Annapoorna that’s trending across India’. The short video has so far garnered over 20,000 likes and has been shared by over 10,000 followers.
During a recent interaction with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman at Coimbatore, Srinivasan, owner of the popular restaurant chain Annapoorna, also the honorary president of Tamil Nadu Hotels Association, raised humorously the issues faced by hoteliers due to varying GST for food items. The video went viral on social media and it reportedly irked the union minister.
Srinivasan jokingly said while bun is exempted from GST, 18% GST is imposed on cream bun. “Customers tell us you give us bun and cream separately, we will handle it,” he said. Srinivasan said due to varying GST on savouries and sweets, even the computer is finding it difficult to compute.
However, Srinivasan’s humourous take didn’t go down well with the union minister. Srinivasan met with Nirmala Sitharaman in private later, in presence of BJP MLA Vanathi Srinivasan and apologised. He also told the minister that was not a member of any political party. A video of this private conversation was allegedly shot by a few BJP functionaries present there and was released on social media.
The ruling DMK in Tamil Nadu and Congress slammed the BJP and the union minister for the manner in which the issue was handled. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin criticised the union minister and said, “The way in which the Finance Minister handled it is shameful. People are watching.”
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi also came down heavily on the BJP. “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. Yet, when a billionaire friend seeks to bend the rules, change the laws, or acquire national assets, Modi Ji rolls out the red carpet,” he tweeted.
BJP Tamil Nadu president K. Annamalai apologised for the row on Friday and said he spoke personally with Srinivasan and expressed regret.