Okay so last night, the craving for a can of Guinness hit me, and best friend
dark_chrysolite and I embarked on an epic mission to go drink one.
Long story short, we got lost, went to Turquise Cottage only to find it deserted and out of Guinness; our favorite hangout served it at some ridiculously overblown price; we then ended up in this crappy restro-bar in Defence Colony that served it, and ordered it there. We also ordered some Japanese prawn dish thing and it wasn't bad.
Then came the bill. Or should I say bills. They had two bills, one for the alcohol and the other for the food. Except that at that point,
dark_chrysolite noticed that they were charging service charge and VAT tax, on EACH bill. So we were charged VAT twice and service charge twice.
Naturally we argued, even demanding to speak to the manager, who cooly informed us that there was nothing unusual, that it's customary to charge two bills, one for food and another for alcohol. Which sounded really, really fishy.
Anyway by the end of the night the manager ran downstairs to the parking lot and refunded us the extra cash in question, but still, now our curiosity is piqued.
According to Wikipedia, VAT is charged per customer per shop, regardless of the number of transactions, whereas sales tax is per transaction (per item). But after that it's all irrelevant because it's different in every country and every jurisdiction, etc.
Granted, this is in India, so who knows what the laws are here; but those of you who are lawyers on my flist, could you maybe throw in your perspective?