Service Tax is not Mandatory,says Minister Paswan

New Delhi, April 22: The Union Minister for Consumer Affairs Ram Vilas Paswan has declared that, the Restaurants cannot force the customers to pay a service charge and customers have the right to decide if they should pay an extra charge.

Already the Centre has said in a fresh set of guidelines for state governments, which the guidelines, cleared by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's office, were being sent to state governments for enforcement.

Mr.Paswan announced the Centre's move in a series of tweets on Thursday. "Service charge is totally voluntary and not mandatory now," the Minister said.

"Hotels and Restaurants should not decide how much service charge is to be paid by the customer and it should be left to the decision of the customer," he said.



The column of service charge in a bill will be left blank to customers to fill up before making the final payment. "If it is a mandatory levy of service charge, then customers can file a complaint in the Consumer Court," a senior Consumer Affairs Ministry official said.