Political outrage erupts after Coimbatore hotelier's apology video with Nirmala Sitharaman goes viral

The video showed Srinivasan apologising to Sitharaman for his earlier remarks about the GST

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Tamil Nadu BJP chief K Annamalai on Friday issued an apology after party functionaries shared a private conversation between Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Srinivasan, owner of the Sri Annapoorna Restaurant chain in Coimbatore. The conversation, recorded at a private event, went viral on social media, sparking widespread criticism from the DMK, Congress, and netizens.

The video showed Srinivasan apologising to Sitharaman for his earlier remarks about the Goods and Services Tax (GST). A day prior, during an event in Coimbatore attended by the Finance Minister, Srinivasan had raised concerns about the inconsistencies in GST rates applied to different food items. “The problem is that GST is applied differently to each item. For instance, there is no GST on bun. But if you apply cream on it, the GST becomes 18 per cent,” Srinivasan had pointed out. He further explained that customers, in an effort to save money, were asking for bun and cream separately to avoid the higher tax.