Ordering food on Zomato, Swiggy to get costlier from January 1

Tribune Web Desk

Chandigarh, December 31

Come 2022 and ordering food off Swiggy, Zomato would get costlier for you. These online restaurant aggregators will be liable to pay GST on the services provided through them. They will have to pay an overhead Goods and Services Tax of 5% from cooked food orders.

In its 45th meeting in September, the GST Council recommended compliance for food delivering platforms to pay GST on behalf of the restaurants on board. Earlier this month, the finance ministry issued a circular that the new rule will come to play starting 2022. The circular said, “As ‘restaurant service’ has been notified under section 9(5) of the CGST Act, 2017, the e-commerce operator (ECO) shall be liable to pay GST on restaurant services provided, with effect from the 1st January, 2022, through ECO.”

This move is expected to impact both restaurants and customers because Swiggy, Zomato will offload a part of the charge to them. It also increases the load on these food aggregators because they are now liable for collecting and depositing GST from restaurants on their platforms.

The new charge will be over and above the already existing 18 per cent that platforms pay for rendering delivery services.