CHENNAI: This weekend, the food at restaurants across the city will get spicier, not in the form of added chilli but in the form of added tax. With Goods and Services Tax (GST) set to roll out on Saturday, the tax on air — conditioned restaurants has escalated to 18 percent, non AC eateries attract 12 per cent GST and petty hotels with Rs 75 lakh annual income would be taxed 5 percent extra.
All the computers at restaurants will be configured with the revised tax rates after they close on Friday. “Before it opens on Saturday, the tax has to be changed in all the outlets and the reports are to be modified for internal records. Tomorrow, the authorities might check some restaurants in the city to see if rules are being adhered,” said account manager of a famous eatery. Currently, your bill is a consolidated amount of food cost, service tax, food tax, Cess, VAT and service charge. Now, a single tax will be charged for the whole meal. But, hoteliers say this might have an adverse effect on consumers.
“A masala dosa costing Rs 50 would now cost Rs 55 and Biryani at a local eatery would be priced at Rs 110 against the standard price of Rs 100. Each and every food item would be 10 per cent costlier and each time a consumer dines, he would shell out '10-15 extra. Students and bachelors who mostly depend on hotels with strict budgets will be worst affected,” said a hotelier. K. Srinivasan, Secretary, Tamil Nadu Hotels and Restaurants Association, said that this move would have a huge impact on petty restaurants with Rs 75 lakh annual income.
“Initially, they were only paying a tax of 0.5-0.75 per cent. Now, they are charged 5 per cent. As the consumers do not pay any tax, ultimately the hoteliers have to bear the cost,” he said, adding that restaurants with less than Rs 20 lakh annual income would mushroom across the city as they are not charged any tax. Also, this would lead to more unauthorised players in the industry. According to the advisor of South India Hotel Association, more people would start opting for roadside eateries, as they are cheaper. ABut, their lack of hygiene might lead to many health problems.
App for pharmacists to gear up for GST:
Digital healthcare platform, hCue launched hCue PharmaSmart, a cloud PoS software designed to assist small and medium businesses, retail pharmacy chains and shops to gear up for Goods and Services Tax. The software supports features like creating a sales invoice, discounting, record sales, expenses and purchases under the new GST regime. hCue with smart machine learning algorithms and smart rules engine will automatically differentiate between Integrated GST Vs State GST and also help the Pharmacists upload to GST network
“hCue PharmaSmart is the first online and offline cloud solution. Even during times of internet outage, pharmacies can continue their work seamlessly with multiple devices and all the information is synchronised back to the cloud once internet connectivity is restored,” said Vijay Krishna, co- founder, hCue. hCue team will organise countrywide seminars, workshops and help desks across 100 cities over the next 60 days to educate the Pharmacists on the implications of GST and the uses of the software.
