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Whenever you go to eat food in a hotel or restaurant, you must have noticed that along with tax, the service charge is also connected in the bill. It is often seen that restaurant operators and employees make pressure on customers to give service charge. Sometimes a slip is caught at the time of entry to customers, in which the service charge is told. At the same time, many times there is a debate about the service charge of customers.
What did Delhi High Court say?
Meanwhile, the Delhi High Court on Friday ruled that it is voluntary to pay service charge by customers on food bills and cannot make it mandatory restaurants or hotels. Customers can give service charge if they want and if they do not want to refuse to give it. Justice Pratibha M Singh ruled the verdict and dismissed the petitions of the restaurant bodies challenging the Central Consumer Protection Authority guidelines that have been prohibited from recovering service charge on food bills on hotels and restaurants. Also a fine of one lakh rupees was imposed.
What is a service charge?
Service charge means fees charged in lieu of service given to you. However, restaurants and Hotels Alredi pricate their menu in such a way that they covers all their costs. Apart from this, customers make GST payments. A long time customers felt that along with the other charges, the service charge is also charged and the rest of the taxes is also a menditory. In fact, the service charge was also written with VAT and other taxes. But when GST came, people started raising questions that when they are paying allredi tax, why should they pay a service charge on it?
Keeping in mind the concern of the customers, the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) started telling people that the service charge is not government tax nor mandatory. Even after this, the restaurants arbitrarily added service charge with the bill.
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