Eating Ice cream at an ice cream parlour is a “service”!!

The government is thinking of making eating of ice-cream at service parlours subject to service tax! Why? Because ice-cream parlours are air-conditioned and hence subject to service tax!! The question is whether ice-cream is a product or a service! To my mind ice-cream is a manufactured product and is subject to excise duty once it leaves the factory. Because it is a product it will be subject to VAT as per the respective State laws. Now an additional dose of tax – service tax @ 12.36% over and above the two taxes. This will lead to taxation in excess of 35% on ice cream is eaten at ice-cream parlour…..it just makes me want to scream.

The basics of product vis-à-vis service is being brought into question by fuddy-duddy bureaucrats who want to be in the good books of the Finance Ministry by whatever means possible and the citizenry at large be damned, I guess.

It is apparent that a useless Government is trying to fill its pockets through all means possible to enhance its coffers so that it can continue to indulge in wasteful expenditure. The more money they take through direct and indirect taxes, the more the money available for siphoning off through the various on-going scams.

This is going to kill the food industry completely. People have stopped going to beer bars and restaurants due to the high incidence of taxation. Now they will stop going to ice-cream parlours which are basically teen-age and family evening-out hot spots! The government is telling people buy your stuff, take it home and eat. DO NOT EAT OUT. It is becoming a complete kill joy of a government. Its philosophy seems to be tax till you get the axe! Looks like the voters need to sharpen their axes!!