New Delhi: The new guidelines of the Ministry of Consumer Affairs will empower people to approach consumer commissions. Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) if hotels and restaurants are wanted service tax Despite the ministry asking them to stop making levies. Paying any amount as a tip will be entirely up to the customers and the eateries cannot directly or indirectly charge anything over and above the rate of the food items.
Sources said the ministry will come out with new guidelines in the next few days, which will have legal backing to tackle the menace. “The new guidelines will have no place to include any service charge in the bill. Earlier there was no provision in the rules for redressal of such charge by eateries. Earlier. consumer protection act There was no provision for CCPA, which is now a nodal authority to address consumer concerns.”
The earlier guidelines issued in 2017, which were advisory in nature, had an optional provision of printing service charges in the bills. But it had clearly mentioned that the space against such head should be left blank and it would be up to the customer to fill any amount.
Sources said that since the provision had also created some ambiguity in the minds of consumers and restaurant operators, the new guidelines would specify that levying service charges is “illegal”.
The ministry had earlier informed industry representatives that there is no legal validity attached to levying such charges and consumers often charge service charges as ‘service tax’ and pay the same in the end. The ministry had also said that considering the entry of a customer into a restaurant or hotel as an implied consent to payment of service charges, as a condition for placing an order for food, it is necessary to impose an unreasonable cost. There is nothing other than that. It had said that it falls under restrictive trade practice under the Consumer Protection Act and the amended Act of 2019 defines what constitutes an unfair contract.
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