GST Rate Cuts: BJP Activist Tweets Out Bill With Increase In Price, Social Media Gets Hotel To Reduce Price

Amid uproar over the high prices of eating out, the GST Council, on 11 November, had slashed the rates for all restaurants to 5 per cent from the earlier 18 per cent and 12 per cent for air-conditioned and non-air-conditioned restaurants. However, as several people have had been pointing out over social media, rather than passing over the benefits as lower bills to the customers, many restaurants had resorted to inflating the base prices to keep the final prices same as before.

In one such case, however, pointing out the issue on Twitter, helped the user get the prices reduced by the restaurant. In the case of Hotel SVR Sangeetha in Chennai, the restaurant began charging a higher base price in the menu, which led to a higher final prices even after lower GST rates. The before-after prices led to an uproar when brought to notice by an activist of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) SG Suryah.

Reacting to the issue, the restaurant got in contact with the user and rectified it’s menu prices, ultimately leading to a lower final bill in a testament to the power of social media.

While this remains one of the cases where the restaurant took corrective action, other restaurants continue to take advantage of the confusion surrounding GST and cases of malignance continue to pop-up over the several mediums.