Annamalai apologises as Oppn slams BJP for hotelier’s apology

PTI, Chennai: Tamil Nadu BJP chief K Annamalai on Friday apologised for the action of his party functionaries in sharing on social media a video of a private conversation between a hotel chain owner in Coimbatore and Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. Barely minutes after the video went viral, the DMK, Congress and other netizens criticised the BJP for allegedly forcing a reputed hotelier to tender an apology for his remarks on Goods and Services Tax (GST) on September 12 in Coimbatore.

In the controversial leaked video, Sri Annapoorna Restaurant owner Srinivasan could be heard saying to the Finance Minister that he was not affiliated to any party, before apologising. Only a day ago, he had raised the issue of GST at an event attended by Sitharaman in Coimbatore and had said “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.” Due to this, customers, especially families, ask for bun and cream separatelysaying they will apply the cream on the bun themselves to save money, he had said.