It was seen as a textbook example of how not to tax, so where does it stand now?

A bureaucrat’s delight and a citizens’ nightmare – was how a former economic advisor to the Union government had last year described complexities in the Goods and Service Tax (GST) regime promulgated by the Narendra Modi government. And nothing illustrated best the complexities of the GST as the three slabs introduced for the humble popcorn around eight months ago.

On December 24 last year, the GST Council announced a 5 per cent tax on non-branded popcorn mixed with salt and spices, 12 per cent on pre-packaged and branded popcorn, and the highest, 18 per cent, on caramel popcorn, moved to the category of sugar confectionery.

As recently as Wednesday, London’s Financial Times wrote in a report on the GST Council meet scheduled for that evening: “India’s consumers are spoilt for choice when it comes to popcorn – and it is a question of tax as much as taste… The three-tier popcorn tax is for many emblematic of a goods and service tax that has long been criticized for its labyrinthine and confusing classifications.”

Wednesday night’s deliberations and decisions made at the GST Council meet in New Delhi brought the salted and the sugary variety under the same tax bracket in what appeared to clear the labyrinthine confusions.

It appears popcorns, salted, pre-packaged or caramelised, will now attract the uniform tax of 5 per cent across the board.

There is still some confusion about it as the press release from the Press Information Bureau does not mention popcorn anywhere.

What the GST council has done is reduced the 18 per cent slab on “sugar confectionery” to 5 per cent, thus adding caramel popcorn to the list.

Also, the GST on extruded or expanded products, savoury or salted, has been reduced to 5 per cent from the existing 12 per cent.

Another entry for goods where the tax slab has been brought down from 12 per cent to 5 per cent includes: Extruded or expanded products, savoury or salted (other than un-fried or un-cooked snack pellets, by whatever name called, manufactured through process of extrusion).

The December 2024 decision was apparently the Union finance ministry’s answer to bring about a sense of parity in the prices of popcorn, which had survived the Great Depression a century ago in the United States but were pinching the pockets of moviegoers and those in for a quick evening snack alike in India.

While the government is going to town with its “pre-Diwali bonanza” for the people and pro-government publications are busy highlighting the relief to the common person from the rationalisation of the GST slabs, snarky remarks are still popping up on the internet.

“Think about the staggering loot this man did for the last 8 years under the guise of GST,” posted one person who is obviously not a fan of Prime MInister Narendra Modi.

“He taxed soap & shampoos at 18%, he taxed your health insurance premiums @28%, school books, pencils & crayons were charged @12%. Only when you took away his majority did he stop the loot,” the user added.

Another user wrote: “No Income tax upto 12L and now Lower GST rate with No GST on life and health insurance. 240 seats have done it in a year what 282 and 303 seats couldn't do in 10yrs.”

Entrepreneur Maheshwer Peri rubbed it in: “For a nation that taxed notebooks, pencils etc at 12% and calls it a gift when exempting it, we should be worried. All this, while the real business model is: 1. To impose an entrance exam at every stage, push people to coaching and charge 18% GST. 2. Permit degree mills to prosper and push students to skilling courses to become employable (and charge taxes when you earn). The real model is the education services charged at 18%. Not the erasers and pencils exempt from GST,” he wrote.

Activist and fact-checker Mukul Sinha raked up the first prime minister of India, whom the Modi government loves to blame: “Was it Nehru who took the decision to impose GST on Roti and Paratha, and which has now been relaxed by this great government?”

Former Chief of the Air Staff of the Indian Air Force Birender Dhanoa also stuck it into the government: “You’ve had the same government that brought in the GST in multiple slabs back in 2017, they’ve added different cess levels over the years and are now claiming the removal of two rate slabs as “next gen reforms”, I mean how dumb do they believe the consumers to be?”

The PIB said: “Next generation GST reforms, as announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi from the ramparts of Red Fort on 15th August, 2025 represent a strategic, principled and citizen-centric evolution of a landmark tax framework, which will enhance the quality of life if every last citizen.”

After the late night announcement made on Wednesday, economists and commentators wondered where the popcorn fits into the sweeping changes. The answer? It fits somewhere in between.