{"id":122828,"date":"2022-07-18T13:45:56","date_gmt":"2022-07-18T08:15:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/?p=122828"},"modified":"2022-07-15T10:52:05","modified_gmt":"2022-07-15T05:22:05","slug":"know-about-the-new-service-charge-guidelines-for-hotels-restaurants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/government\/know-about-the-new-service-charge-guidelines-for-hotels-restaurants","title":{"rendered":"Know about the new service charge guidelines for hotels, restaurants"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Everyone likes to go out to eat. The fancy plating, the uber cool or classy and sophisticated interiors, and the mouth-watering delicacies sum up the experience of visiting a restaurant to grab a meal. But what makes one worried at the end are the taxes and other charges levied on the bill. Putting up extra costs like the service charge makes the meal costlier.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Over the past few years, a debate regarding whether restaurants should levy service charges or not has started in the country. Although, it varies from restaurant to restaurant whether they want to take the service charge or not.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">But a consumer cannot be bounded to pay a service charge on the bill and can ask the restaurant to remove it. Unfortunately, some restaurants do not do so even after asking and instead embarrass the customer.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Considering this issue, new guidelines regarding the service charge have been issued by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food, and Public Distribution. It is done to prevent consumers from this unfair practice and make people aware of their consumer rights.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">What is a Service Charge?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">A Service Charge is an additional charge that the restaurants and hotels levy on the food bill for offering their services. This charge usually ranges between 5% to 15%. While GST is a mandatory charge, the service charge is not. It is optional and depends on whether the consumer wants to pay it or not.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">CCPA New Guidelines for Hotels and Restaurants regarding Service Charge<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">On July 4, 2022, the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) issued the new guidelines. According to them, it is done to prevent unfair trade practices and protect the interest of the consumers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">This action was taken in addition to the 2017 guidelines, which prohibited the levy of service charge. After a meeting held on June 2, 2022, between the Department of Consumer Affairs and restaurant associations and consumer organizations regarding the service charge in hotels and restaurants, it was decided that the Centre would soon release a framework.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">According to these guidelines:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">No restaurant is allowed to levy a service charge automatically or by default in the bill<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Service charge cannot be collected from the consumers by any other name<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">A hotel or restaurant cannot force consumers to pay the service charge. It should be informed to the customer that the service charge is voluntary and depends on the consumer&#8217;s discretion.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">No restriction on entry or provision of services based on the collection of service charge can be imposed on consumers<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Service charge cannot be collected by adding it along with the food bill and levying GST on the total amount<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">What happens if someone violates these guidelines?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">In case any hotel or restaurant violates CCPAs new guidelines on Service charges, the following steps can be taken:<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">A consumer can request the restaurant or hotel to remove the service charge.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">A complaint can be filed on the National Consumer Helpline (NCH) on their helpline number 1915 or the NCH mobile application.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">A complaint can also be made to the Consumer Commission on the e-daakhil portal&#8217;s website &#8211; www.edaakhil.nic.in.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">A consumer can also complain to the concerned District Collector or send an e-mail to com-ccpa@nic.in.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Everyone likes to go out to eat. The fancy plating, the uber cool or classy and sophisticated interiors, and the mouth-watering delicacies sum up the experience of visiting a restaurant to grab a meal. But what makes one worried at the end are the taxes and other charges levied on the bill. Putting up extra [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21831,"featured_media":123029,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,4,11315,12275,12360,12220],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-122828","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-food","8":"category-government","9":"category-india","10":"category-knowledge","11":"category-policy","12":"category-restaurants"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21831"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122828"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122828\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":123022,"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122828\/revisions\/123022"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}