Ghaziabad Restaurant Fined for Illegally Imposing Extra Service Charge on Doon Resident
A restaurant in Ghaziabad was fined for imposing an unauthorized 'additional service charge' on a customer from Doon. Siddharth Rawat, who visited 'Crops & Curries' in Sept 2021, was taken aback to see a 10% service charge added to his bill on top of the applicable Goods and Services Tax (GST). Rawat argued against the charge, but the restaurant maintained it was due. Following his complaint, the district consumer commission ruled in favor of Rawat in July 2022, ordering the restaurant to return the Rs 435 charged as a service fee and also pay for Rawat's mental anguish and legal costs. The restaurant's attempt to contest this decision at the state commission was unsuccessful.
The state commission, led by judicial member Kumkum Rani and member B S Manral, confirmed the district commission's judgment, stating that restaurants should not impose a service tax in the current GST regime. They noted that the bill properly included CGST and SGST, rendering the service charge unnecessary. Consequently, the commission mandated the restaurant to issue a refund and awarded Rawat Rs 15,000 in compensation along with 9% interest from the case's initiation date.