NEW DELHI: The new guidelines of the consumer affairs ministry will empower people to approach consumer commissions and the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) if hotels and restaurants seek service charge despite the ministry asking them to stop making the levy. It will be completely up to the customers to pay any amount as tip and eateries cannot directly or indirectly levy any charge more than the rate of food items.
Sources said the ministry in the next few days will come out with the fresh guidelines, which will have legal backing to deal with this menace. “There will be no room for including any service charge in the bill in the new guidelines. Earlier there was no provision in the rules to seek redressal against such charge by the eateries. The earlier Consumer Protection Act had no provision for CCPA, which is now a nodal authority to address consumers’ concerns,” said an official.
The earlier guidelines issued in 2017, which was advisory in nature, had an optional provision of printing service charge in bills. But it had clearly mentioned that the space against such a head must be left blank and it would be up to the customer to fill any amount.
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Sources said since this provision had also created some ambiguity in the minds of consumers and eatery operators, the new guidelines will specify that levying service charge is “illegal”.
The ministry had earlier informed the industry representatives that there is no legal sanctity attached to levying such a charge and that consumers often take the service charge as ‘service tax’ and end up paying this.
The ministry had also said that considering entry of a customer to a restaurant or hotel as an implied consent to pay service charge is nothing but imposition of an unjustified cost as a condition precedent to placing an order for food. It had said this falls under restrictive trade practice under the Consumer Protection Act and the amended Act of 2019 defines what an unfair contract is. (Times Of India)
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