Meloni's praise for Parle's Melody with Modi revives GST debate
India
A fun moment between Prime Minister Modi and Italy's Prime Minister Meloni, where she called Parle's Melody a "very, very good toffee," has brought back the GST debate around this popular sweet.
Even though Melody looks and tastes like a toffee, it actually gets taxed as a chocolate in India because of its cocoa content, landing it with an 18% GST rate (down from 28% after the November 2017 cut).
Parle's Melody contains 6.5-11.1% cocoa solids
Melody has about 6.5% to 11.1% cocoa solids mixed in with caramel, which means it falls under the "cocoa preparations" category for tax purposes (Chapter 18 of the HSN).
Regular sugar-based toffees are grouped separately under Chapter 17.
So that little bit of chocolatey goodness is what bumps up the tax!