On Monday, the hotels and restaurants were barred by the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) from levying service charge through automatic means or by default in the bills.
In the order, CCPA said “Hotels, restaurants can’t force consumers to pay service charge; it will be voluntary option at consumer’s discretion. Service charge in hotel/restaurant bill cannot be collected from consumers by any other name; can’t be added to food bill.”
A complaint can be lodged by the consumers on National Consumer Helpline number 1915 against the hotels/restaurants that charge the service.
Now, it will be on the consumers to pay any amount as a tip on which the hotels and restaurants cannot charge (directly or indirectly) more than the price of food items.
