MCDonald’s in the soup over anti-profiteering

New Delhi: The anti-profiteering authority (NAA) has found Hardcastle Restaurants, a franchisee of fast food chain McDonald’s, guilty of not passing on GST rate cut benefits of over Rs 7.49 crore to consumers. Hardcastle Restaurants was operating quick service restaurants under the brand name McDonald’s in the Western and Southern regions of India. Complaints were filed against the restaurant accusing it of keeping the prices of the products same despite a reduction in the GST rate from 18 per cent to 5 per cent with effect from November 15, 2017. The Directorate General of Anti-Profiteering (DGAP) in the course of investigation has found that the restaurant has not passed over Rs 7.49 crore worth benefit due to reduction in the rate of tax as also the benefit of input tax credit (ITC) availed by the restaurant.