GST on restaurant bills in India

Before you read

This guide explains the rules in plain words and links each one to the official page it comes from, with the day we read it. It is not tax advice. GST rules change, and your own situation may differ — check with your chartered accountant or tax practitioner before you change how you bill.

The rate for most restaurants: 5% without input tax credit

The GST Council's own summary of hotel and restaurant services lists standalone restaurants, including takeaway, at 5% GST without input tax credit (ITC).^[1] "Without ITC" means the restaurant does not claim back the GST it paid on its own purchases — rent, gas, packaging and so on — against the GST it collects on bills. The 5% is charged on the bill and paid over; the GST on costs stays a cost.

The same table lists standalone outdoor catering and food delivery services at 5% without ITC too.^[2] So a cloud kitchen delivering its own food and a café with a counter usually start from the same rate.

BillDine shows a GST rate on the bill as its two parts, each with its amount: a 5% group prints as CGST 2.5% and SGST 2.5% (or a State component for UTGST). Which parts apply to your sales is a question for your accountant.

Restaurants inside hotels

For a restaurant inside a hotel, what matters is whether the hotel is a "specified premises" for the year. Restaurant service in a specified premises is 18% with ITC; elsewhere it is 5% without ITC. From 1 April 2025, a hotel premises is a specified premises for a financial year if, in the previous financial year, it supplied hotel accommodation at a value above ₹7,500 per unit per day, or if the hotel has filed a declaration opting in.^[3] So it is last year's room rates (or the hotel's own declaration), not today's, that set this year's rate.

A standalone restaurant cannot choose the 18% route to claim back its input tax. At its 56th meeting the GST Council recommended clarifying exactly that: a stand-alone restaurant cannot declare itself a "specified premises", and so cannot opt to pay GST at 18% with ITC.^[4]

The composition scheme

Smaller restaurants can opt for the composition scheme. The Council's summary says restaurants under composition pay GST at a concessional 5% on turnover, with turnover not above ₹1.5 crore (₹1 crore in special category States); they cannot claim input tax credit, make inter-state outward supplies, or supply items not taxable under GST such as alcohol.^[5]

The practical difference shows on the bill. A composition taxpayer cannot issue a tax invoice or collect GST from customers: it issues a bill of supply with the words "Composition Taxable Person not eligible to collect tax on supplies" at the top.^[5] A restaurant with a regular registration issues a tax invoice that shows the GST.

Which is better for you depends on your turnover, your costs and whether you serve alcohol. That is a conversation for your accountant, with your own figures.

What else a restaurant bill shows in India

Besides your GSTIN and the tax lines, one number every food business must print is its FSSAI number. FSSAI requires food businesses to print their 14-digit FSSAI licence or registration number on receipts, invoices, cash memos and bills, enforced from 1 January 2022.^[6]

A typical restaurant bill in India therefore carries:

• your legal name, address and phone;
• your GSTIN (with a regular registration) and your FSSAI number;
• a bill number and date;
• each dish, its quantity and amount;
• the subtotal, any discount, and the tax by part and rate (CGST, SGST);
• the total, with any rounding shown as its own line.

Service charge is a separate question

Many guests ask about the "service charge" line. The Central Consumer Protection Authority's guidelines say no hotel or restaurant shall add a service charge automatically or by default in the bill, nor collect it by any other name,^[7] and that service charge shall not be collected by adding it to the food bill and levying GST on the total amount.^[8] Our guide to service charges and tips covers what that means in practice, and how other countries treat it.

Prices before or including GST

Menus in India are often written before GST, with the tax added on the bill. Some restaurants prefer prices that already include GST, so the menu price is what the guest pays. Either way the bill must show the tax correctly; what changes is how the menu reads. Choose one way per outlet and keep your printed menu consistent with it.

Setting it up in BillDine

BillDine is built to print an Indian restaurant bill the way described above. What it does today:

• Your registration. In Business details, choose your tax status: Regular, Composition or Not registered for GST. With a regular registration a bill is titled "Tax Invoice"; without one, BillDine prints a "Bill of Supply" with no GST lines. BillDine does not add the composition wording by itself: type it in the receipt template's Heading or Extra line. When you add an outlet in another state, BillDine asks for that state's GSTIN.
• Your rate. Quick start offers the usual GST 5%. In Settings → Billing rules → Taxes you can add other tax groups; for India each group splits into CGST and SGST by itself, with a State component for UTGST and an optional cess. A dish can have its own tax group.
• Prices before or including tax. A new outlet in India starts with prices before GST. Tax Mode switches an outlet to prices that include tax.
• The bill's top lines. The receipt template prints your legal name, address, phone, GSTIN and your FSSAI licence number, and the bill shows the tax by part and rate. See printing in BillDine.
• A service charge only if you want one. A service charge is a charge you add yourself, with its own tax group or none; staff can take it off a single bill on the POS (a reason is optional), and waiters may remove it.
• For your return. The GST filing page lays out a month's invoices and credit notes in GSTR-1's tables for you or your accountant, and the tax report shows the tax your bills charged by rate. See reports.

The lesson Take payment: cash, UPI QR and card walks through a first bill.

A short checklist

1. Confirm your registration type with your accountant: regular or composition.
2. Confirm your rate: 5% without ITC for most standalone restaurants; a restaurant in a hotel depends on whether the hotel is a "specified premises" for the year.
3. Put your GSTIN and FSSAI number on the bill.
4. Decide whether menu prices are before or including GST, and print the menu to match.
5. If you are on composition, put "Composition Taxable Person not eligible to collect tax on supplies" at the top of your bill.
6. Leave any service charge off by default, and make it clearly optional if you use one.
7. Keep each month's bills and credit notes ready for your return.