new delhi when mumbai resident vijay kishore ordered his usual hot cake with maple syrup meal and a vegetarian brioche from mcdonalds on july 1 his bill was about 10 higher than what he paid earlier and the gst rate of 18 did not add up to what it should have kishore tweeted to mcdonalds which said it would look into the matter new delhi resident aditi khanna name changed had a similar story to share she was planning to order indian fare from desi vibes through zomato on thursday khanna said that while placing the order it appeared that the restaurant was billing her at the old vatinclusive price without specifying the gst rate khanna did not go ahead with the order desi vibes said it had not increased prices zomato declined to comment for this story eating out was supposed to get cheaper with the implementation of the goods and services tax on july 1 gst was set at 18 for ac restaurants compared with a total burden of about 21 in the metros earlier however some of those dining or ordering out are still feeling the pinch with restaurants increasing prices in the new regime or not passing on benefits to customers social media platforms are abuzz with stories of higher restaurant bills in places including bengaluru kolkata and ratnagiri in response to customer complaints bengalurubased mtr restaurants said on twitter that prices have increased because most raw material is exempt and it cannot avail of input credits in some cases the accounting software hasnt been updated yet and restaurants are generating inflated and incorrect bills restaurateurs said software vendors still expect gst notifications there are billing issues due to the older software which has automated vat rates we hope it will get resolved in a few days said dilip datwani president of the hotel restaurant association of western india liquor is charged under vat and food items under gst so that can also cause confusion among customers said ankit gupta president of the chandigarh hospitality association soam a restaurant in mumbai said there was some confusion among customers over gst and that it was being addressed the gst council had pegged rates for nonair conditioned restaurants at 12 restaurants with a turnover of less than rs 50 lakh are placed in 5 bracket the critical questions are whether customers are getting the right rate and whether the benefits are being passed on to them according to suresh nair partner of indirect tax practice at ey there are people issuing manual invoices customers need to be educated as they may not know turnover and categorisation of the restaurant so something could be done in the interim wherein the consumer can see the shop and establishments act or restaurants could put up a board stating whether or not they are registered under gst the bigger challenge is to see if benefit is being passed on to consumers that might take some time to figure out nair said