GST Billing for Restaurants: A Complete 2026 Guide

Restaurant GST rates depend on where and how you serve:

• Standalone restaurants (dine-in, takeaway, delivery): 5% GST without input tax credit (ITC).
• Restaurants inside hotels with room tariff below ₹7,500: 5% without ITC.
• Restaurants inside hotels with room tariff of ₹7,500 or above: 18% with ITC.
• Outdoor catering: 18% with ITC in most cases.

For most standalone restaurants, cafes, and cloud kitchens, the practical answer is 5% — split as 2.5% CGST and 2.5% SGST on every bill. Orders through Zomato and Swiggy are also taxed at 5%, but since 2022 the aggregator collects and deposits the GST on restaurant services, which changes how you report those sales.

Every tax invoice you issue needs these fields to be compliant:

• Your legal business name, address, and GSTIN
• A consecutive, unique invoice number and the invoice date
• Itemised list with quantity, rate, and taxable value
• CGST and SGST shown separately with their rates
• Total amount payable, in figures

Handwritten bills and basic cash-register receipts routinely miss these fields. A dedicated restaurant billing software prints every field automatically on each receipt, so compliance stops being something staff have to remember.

Restaurants with annual turnover up to ₹1.5 crore can opt for the composition scheme and pay a flat 5% tax on turnover instead of collecting GST per bill. The trade-offs: you cannot issue tax invoices, cannot collect GST from customers, cannot claim ITC, and cannot sell through e-commerce aggregators like Zomato and Swiggy.

For a small dine-in-only eatery, composition can simplify life. For any restaurant that wants delivery revenue, the regular 5% scheme is usually the only practical option.

• Charging GST on aggregator orders: since the aggregator deposits GST on these, double-charging inflates prices and confuses reconciliation.
• Missing HSN/SAC codes where turnover rules require them.
• Broken invoice number sequences from mixing manual books with software billing.
• Service charge confusion: service charge is optional and must not be disguised as a tax line.
• Late GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B filings because sales data lives in a shoebox of paper bills.

Modern GST billing software handles the entire chain: correct tax slab per item, automatic CGST/SGST split, sequential invoice numbering, and returns-ready GST summary reports you can hand straight to your CA. Billing Rasoi does this on every order type — dine-in, takeaway, QR ordering, and aggregator — and keeps a clean digital trail for audits. Start with the 14-day free trial and see your first compliant invoice in minutes.