Fact Check: Morning stays good! Viral clip about 18% GST on 'Good Morning' messages is satire

Hyderabad: An anonymous newspaper cutout and video clip claiming that the government will impose 18% GST on ‘good morning’ messages from April 1, 2024, is being widely circulated on social media.

The caption to one such tweet reads, “Come April 1, 2024, your morning may not remain 'good' anymore! This clip says so. Listen. People sending good morning messages in #India are slowing down the 'net' hence netizens will have to cough up 18% GST for each GM message sent!”

The headline of the newspaper cutout states, 'गुड मॉर्निंग मैसेज पर लगेगा 18% जीएसटी' which loosely translates in English as '18% GST will be imposed on good morning messages'.

The cutout is being shared with the caption, 'बंद करो गुड मॉर्निंग के मैसेज' which translates to 'Stop sending good morning messages'.

Secondly, in the ABP News clip, we can see its ex-anchor Abhisar Sharma reporting the government imposition of 18% GST on good morning messages from April 1.

Sending Good morning messages is customary in India, especially for the elderly. Millions of good morning posters and messages are being shared every morning be it individually or in our family groups.

According to the viral newspaper cutout: “Lekhpal, Chief Secretary, Ministry of Mobile Communications, WhatsApp Messenger will keep track of all the good morning messages you send. 18% GST has been fixed on such messages, for which a bill will be generated at the end of the month and it will have to be paid along with the mobile bill. The reason for the implementation of GST is the slowing down of the internet.”

Fact Check

NewsMeter found the claim to be false as the newspaper cutout is an old satire report from 2018 and the ABP News visual has been clipped to spread misinformation.

We performed a keyword search with relevant keywords and found the original extended version of the viral clip showing Abhisar Sharma reporting about the GST imposition on the website of ABP Live dated March 20, 2018.

On closely analyzing the video titled 'Viral sach: government to impose 18% GST on sending good morning messages on WhatsApp?', we found that the report was intended to show the truth behind the viral claim. Debunking the viral news cutout, the ABP report confirmed that the newspaper cutout was a satire article printed in Navbharat Times newspaper with the tags 'Bura na mano Holi hai' dated March 2, 2018.

We found the same report carrying the same visuals on the Facebook handle of ABP News as well.

Moreover, the same report carrying the Navbharat Times newspaper cutout was also reported by ABP News and Dainik Bhaskar.

Lastly, the spokesperson of WhatsApp has also confirmed that the claim regarding GST on good morning messages is fake, no such announcement was made.

Hence, it is evident that the viral message is merely a satire and is almost 6 years old.