More Bengaluru restaurants now add ‘voluntary’ tag to service charge on bills

Despite clear directions from consumer authorities that restaurants cannot mandatorily levy service charges, many eateries in Bengaluru continue to discreetly slip it into the customer bills. 

After a recent crackdown by the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) on restaurants in the city automatically adding a service charge to the bill, several restaurants, have now started adding the term ‘voluntary’ next to the charge. 

According to the guidelines issued by the CCPA and upheld the Delhi High Court, compulsory service charges in restaurants and hotels are considered an unfair trade practice under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019. The rules are explicit: Service charges must not be automatically added, cannot be collected under other names, and must be clearly presented as voluntary. Violators may face penalties of up to Rs 50,000. 

A pan-Asian restaurant in MG Road claimed that adding the term ‘voluntary’ in the bill, kept them in the clear. “Our legal team has looked into this and we are accordingly following the law. We added the voluntary service charge last week, and if any customer asks us to remove it, we immediately do so,” the manager of the restaurant shares. A few more restaurants in Kalyan Nagar and Indiranagar have also started adding the ‘voluntary’ tag to the bill in 2026. 

Most restaurants DH spoke to claimed that only an average of 15% of customers requested for the service charge to be removed, while a majority paid it willingly and skipped the tip. 

“We levy the service charge because there isn’t a sufficient tipping culture in India. It is solely to help the staff. And from our understanding, it is not illegal to levy a voluntary charge,” a restaurateur with 20 dining outlets across the city said. 

However, a new survey by Local Circles found that 59% of the surveyed consumers across the country, who visited air conditioned restaurants in the last month, paid the service charge. The survey also shared that the percentage of consumers who paid the service charge rose from 43% in 2022 to 59% in 2026. 

Several restaurants not only add the default service charge but also apply GST on that amount, which diners believe is unfair. However, overall diners shared that restaurants comply with having the charge removed without any resistance.