It’s the perfect season for munching on the jaggery-based Indian confectionery — the good wholesome chikki. The flavours available suit every palate, from the simple sesame (til) chikki, the widely popular peanut chikki or the rich dry fruit chikki. But, if cocoa powder is added to make a chocolate-peanut chikki, well it gets a whole new avatar in the realm of GST — with a higher tax of 18%.
Recently, the GST-Authority for Advance Rulings (GST-AAR), in the case Sirimiri Nutrition Food Products, a Bengaluru-based chikki manufacturer agreed that several of their chikkies, including the new varieties of dry fruit chikki and spirulina chikki will be subject to 5% GST. These varieties of chikkies were categorised under Chapter heading 17 as ‘sugar confectionery not containing cocoa’.
However, when it came to ‘chocolate-peanut chikki’, the Karnataka bench of the GST AAR pointed out that this product contains cocoa powder and is covered under Chapter 18, which covers chocolate and other food preparations containing cocoa. The tax in this case is a higher 18%.
