Swiggy, Zomato To Pay GST. Will Ordering Food Online Get Costlier?

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced key decisions taken in the 45th meeting of the GST Council. Addressing the media on Friday at the GST council meeting, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman says E-commerce operators Swiggy, Zomato will now have to pay GST. Earlier the tax was paid by the restaurant owners. But now the aggregator will also have to pay the same.

Food delivery apps like Zomato and Swiggy were registered as TCS, or Tax Collected at Source, in GST records earlier. But they will now be paying good and services tax to the government.

Speaking to the media the FM said, “The place where the food is delivered will be the point where tax will be collected by the services like Swiggy and Zomato. Suppose you order food from the aggregator, now the restaurant is paying taxes. But we found some restaurants were not paying. We are now saying that if you order the aggregator will collect from the consumer and pay to the authorities instead of the restaurant doing this.”

This move does not mean that a new tax for customers, just that the GST they pay on food delivered by Swiggy and Zomato will now be routed to the government through a different channel.

The bills paid by the customer already have the tax component. But it is forwarded to the restaurant who forward it to the government. But many restaurants skipped paying their taxes. As per the new rule, Swiggy and Zomato will collect taxes from the customer. They will then pay it to the authorities rather than paying them to the restaurant.

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