New Delhi/Chennai: Minutes after Rahul Gandhi took a potshot at Narendra Modi-led NDA government over a leaked video, BJP’s Tamil Nadu unit president Annamalai on Friday issued an apology for making the private conversation between a businessman and Finance Minister Finance Minister Sitharaman public.
Annamalai, in a post on X, said, “I sincerely apologise for the actions of our functionaries who shared a private conversation between a respected business owner and our Hon. FM. I spoke with Thiru Srinivasan Avl, the esteemed owner of the Annapoorna chain of Restaurants, to express regret for this unintended breach of privacy.”
On behalf of @BJP4TamilNadu, I sincerely apologise for the actions of our functionaries who shared a private conversation between a respected business owner and our Hon. FM.
I spoke with Thiru Srinivasan Avl, the esteemed owner of the Annapoorna chain of Restaurants, to express…
— K.Annamalai (@annamalai_k) September 13, 2024
Earlier, highlighting the issue, Leader of Opposition (LoP) in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi said when a small business like Annapoorna restaurant asks for simplified GST, his request is met with arrogance and disrespect. But for big businesses, the government rolls out the red carpet.
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…
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) September 13, 2024
Earlier in the day, Kerala Congress shared two videos on the social media platform. In the first video, the owner of Annapoorna restaurant is seen highlighting how different GST rates create problems.
“The problem is that GST is applied differently to each item. For example, there is no GST on buns. If you put cream in it, GST becomes 18%. Because of this, customers ask we give bun and cream separately and they will apply cream on the bun themselves to save money. People say that the FM has put 5% GST on sweet and 12% on namkeen because people eat a lot of sweets in the North. In Tamil Nadu, sweet, namkeen and coffee go together. Please charge uniform GST for these. The computer itself is getting stuck because of this GST confusion,” he says.
In the second video, the same businessman is seen apologising.