Now paying service charge at restaurants not mandatory: Ram Vilas Paswan

Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan on Sunday said that restaurants can take service charge but see that you give a portion from it to service staff and it should be accounted.

The government approved the new guidelines that make paying service charge at restaurants and not mandatory. The service charge is totally voluntary.

He further said hotels or restaurants should not decide how much service charge is to be paid by the customer & it should be left to the discretion of customer.

"The government has approved guidelines on service charge. As per the guidelines, service charge is totally voluntary and not mandatory now," Paswan said. The serve charge column will be left vacant so that the customer may decide on his/her own as for to how much to pay the amount.

Charging anything other than aforementioned, without consent of customer, would amount to unfair trade practice.

And if at all any consumer is asked to pay service charges, that person can file a complaint in the consumer forum.

OneIndia News