Bhopal restaurant fined Rs.8000 for charging Rs.1 GST on water bottle.

A consumer court in Bhopal has ordered a restaurant owner to pay Rs.8000 as compensation to a customer for charging her Rs.1 as GST on a Rs.20 MRP bottle of water.

The restaurant owner had charged the customer Rs.29 for the bottle and sought to justify it by saying the added charges were for AC, seating and on-table service. But he could not justify the Rs.1 charged as GST in the bill as the MRP of a packaged water bottle includes GST.

petitioner , Aishwarya, had fined with her companions at the restaurant in 2021. When she got the bill, she was surprised to see she had been charged ‘MRP Rs20’ printed on it. When she challenged it, she was told that the extra money included Re1 GST plus additional charges. The restaurant staff maintained that the money charged was legal and gave her a bill.

Aishwarya took the matter to the District Consumer Forum, which held the restaurant responsible for ‘deficiency in service’ and asked the owner to pay the customer Rs.8000, including Rs.5000 for mental agony cause to her and Rs.3000 for expenses on litigation.

He was also asked to return the Re1 charged as GST to the petitioner.