Pay more for telephone calls

BANGALORE, INDIA: Eating and talking just got a bit expensive. With the budget proposals being enforced from April 1, to  be precise, with the service tax being hiked to 12.36 per cent from 10.30 per cent, you will have to pay more for phone calls and eating out in restaurants.

Currently about 120 services including advertisement, dry cleaning, health clubs, credit card etc comer under the service tax category.

Also read: Budget impact on IT sector

The government proposes to collect about Rs 1.24 lakh crore from service tax during the current financial year, up from Rs 95,000 crore during 2011-12. The services sector accounts for about 59 per cent of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP).