It is 18% GST which is being charged on all the outdoor and industry catering services. The caterers urged that the GST tax levy of 18% on outdoor and industry catering services should be brought down to 5% for the sake of the highly fragmented sector and by doing this they believe, the sector would be prevented from being more unorganised.
The caterers talked in this context at the inauguration of the first gathering of the Federation of Karnataka Caterers and said that for canteen services there is only a 5% of GST that is charged but the event and outdoor caterers are exempted of it. As a result of which, many of such event and outdoor caterers are forced to operate without a proper license and paying taxes.
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They produced the data and said that out of 10,000 caterers across the state, in which 5,000 is from Bengaluru, only 500 have got themselves registered with the FKC so far.
“FKC is an attempt to bring all caterers under one umbrella. However, there is some resistance and convincing needed as most small caterers operate without proper licenses due to the high GST rate. We’ve been trying to bring government’s attention to this issue, which limits the growth of the industry, but has been unsuccessful so far,” said Pankaj Kothari, founder president of FKC and proprietor of Sagar Hotel and Caterers, Gayatri Vihar.
FKC, inaugurated by governor Vajubhai Vala, would be conducting awareness programmes and seminars for a motive to educate the small caterers regarding the crux of business and encourage them to get proper licences, the FKC president GK Shetty.