The cost of dining out, be it a romantic dinner for two in an upmarket restaurant or a family party at McDonald's, goes up on Saturday, but most restaurants are still unable to say by how much. At McDonald's it is as uncomplicated as their hamburger meals. Their prices will rise across the board by an average of 8.5 per cent. Restaurants, however, are still struggling with the impact of the new tax and some say they will not be pricing their new menus until the last minute. Most expect to put up their meal prices by almost the entire 10 per cent GST because, beyond a pinch of salt, they use little or no prepared ingredients, which have previously attracted an embedded sales tax.
Drinks are more complicated.
The government has introduced a new equalisation tax on wine and increased excises on spirits to offset the losses of the sales taxes that come off as the GST goes on. These will push the post-GST price of wines and spirits in restaurants up by between 7.5 per cent and 8 per cent. However, the likely increases in beer prices remains confused, with predictions that some premium and low-alcohol beers will go down in price. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has estimated restaurant meals will increase by 8.6 per cent to 9.2 per cent but the industry's own organisation, Restaurant and Catering Australia, says it may go higher. Mr Hart said competitive pressure would apply, which might help bring down the increases to the higher level of the ACCC prediction.