The government of India does not seem to apply its mind thoroughly these days. It makes half baked implementation policies. Not many months ago, in the middle of the financial year when the government decided to reduce the subsidies on lpg, it said 6 subsidized cylinders per household, without mentioning whether it was calender year or financial year and whether the subsidy would be provided on a pro rata basis or fresh starting from that month.
This lack of clarity caused a lot of confusion and harassment to the customers and the sellers of the lpgs (the big 3 Oil Marketing companies). Now, the government has yet again gone the same in another place. Applicability of Service tax on air conditioned high end restaurants from April 1, 2013.
the tax is actually to be levied on service, but where is the service element in take aways/canteens/mess, etc.? In the absence of this, many chains including McDonalds have started applying service tax on the bills on the safer side. If the government later clarifies that they are out of the ambit of the service tax and refunds the service tax collected to the companies, as there is no way to return the money back to the customer, the companies would end up making a good profit as they sieze on it.
On another angle, most restaurant business run a scam/sham of getting the customer's money by charging service charges and a service tax on the whole bill which is itself a fraud (by design or ignorance). More on this here:
The lack of government's application of mind is helping the people give away more of their money to the already crooked restaurants.
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