Connaught Place, Delhi

Connaught Place's restro-bars keep two sets of tax records

Connaught Place mixes offices, showrooms and a large number of restaurants and bars. Most of its offices need nothing special. A restaurant that serves alcohol does, because one bill falls under two different tax laws.

Sources checked November 2026. Based on the official and published sources cited here. For your own case, Deepak Mittal reviews the position with you directly.

Which kind of Connaught Place business are you?

The New Delhi Traders Association described the area in November 2025 as a hub of more than 2,000 showrooms, offices, restaurants and cafes. The descriptions below come from news reports and Wikipedia. The accounting points are our general analysis.

Restaurants and bars on the circles

In 2017 the NDMC sealed the rooftops of 21 cafes and bars in C, D and F blocks alone.

What matters: food and alcohol are taxed under different laws, so sales, stock and returns must be split from the first bill. The next two sections explain how.

Offices, banks and practices

Wikipedia places offices and banks in the Middle Circle, and corporate offices along Barakhamba Road and Kasturba Gandhi Marg.

What matters: nothing here differs from offices elsewhere. Your books follow your work, so see the commercial and professional areas page and accounting for consultants.

Showrooms and handicraft shops

Wikipedia describes Janpath and Baba Kharak Singh Marg as a shopping area for Indian handicrafts, with the State Emporiums on the latter.

What matters: walk-in sales with cash, card and UPI, and stock by item. See accounting for retail shops.

One bill, two tax laws

Section 9(1) of the CGST Act levies GST on intra-State supplies "except on the supply of alcoholic liquor for human consumption". Alcohol served in a Delhi restaurant is instead covered by the Delhi Value Added Tax Act. Its Fourth Schedule was amended in 2021 to list liquor for consumption on the premises of hotels, clubs and restaurants as its own entry.

So a restro-bar usually reports food and soft drinks in its GST returns, and alcohol under Delhi VAT. Ask Deepak Mittal which registrations and returns your licence brings, and confirm the current VAT rate with the Trade and Taxes Department, as it has changed before.

What that means for your records

  • Set up the POS so every item is tagged as food or alcohol, and each bill shows the two taxes on separate lines
  • Keep alcohol purchases and stock apart from the kitchen, and count bar stock by bottle and peg
  • Work out a liquor cost percentage separately from food cost, as one will hide problems in the other
  • Make sure discounts and complimentary items are split the same way, or the two returns will not agree with total sales

Alcohol still counts in GST arithmetic

Under the CGST Act, a supply not leviable to GST is a "non-taxable supply" (section 2(78)), and "exempt supply" includes non-taxable supplies (section 2(47)). Two consequences follow.

First, "aggregate turnover" in section 2(6) includes exempt supplies, so your alcohol sales may count towards GST thresholds and limits even though they carry no GST. Second, where input tax credit is claimed on costs used for both taxable and exempt supplies, section 17(2) restricts it to the taxable share. Many restaurants do not take credit at all, so ask whether this applies to you before working on it.

When the market closes early

Trading here can stop at short notice. On 23 July 2026 the traders' association, at the NDMC's request, advised all shops, offices and restaurants to close by 6.30 pm because of protests nearby. The 2017 rooftop sealings mentioned above cut seating for the bars concerned in the same sudden way.

On such days, note the closure, and record perishable stock you had to throw away with a count and a date. It explains a sudden jump in food or liquor cost later.

Questions to ask Deepak Mittal before work starts

  • Have you handled restaurants that file both GST and Delhi VAT returns?
  • How will you reconcile the POS split with each return every month?
  • How should bar stock, breakage and spillage be recorded?
  • Do our alcohol sales push us over any GST turnover limit?

What we can say about this area

AccountOrbit takes enquiries by phone from anywhere in Delhi, including Connaught Place, but has no office there. A restaurant's POS reports, purchase bills and bar stock sheets can be exported and shared each month, which is where the GST and VAT reconciliation starts. See whether your accountant needs to be nearby and accounting for restaurants.

Sources checked, November 2026

Running a restaurant, shop or office in Connaught Place?

Tell us whether you serve alcohol, your rough monthly sales, and your POS or billing software.