The reports note that the move is likely to reduce the earnings of delivery workers in the immediate term
With the food delivery companies and quick commerce players facing a fresh cost burden after the Goods and Services Tax (GST) council confirmed imposing 18 per cent Goods and Services Tax (GST) on delivery fees, media reports indicate that Swiggy and Zomato are looking to pass on the incremental tax.
The reports noted that Swiggy and Zomato, which now face an additional GST burden of Rs 180 to 200 crore each annually, will partly pass it on to the delivery partners and customers. The move is expected to reduce partners’ earnings in the immediate term. The report added that Zomato is discussing charging a levy to consumers.
The development comes after the GST council settled the long-running contention between the government and these platforms on whether they are liable to pay tax on delivery fees collected by them and paid to the gig workers who delivered the items.
In a separate development, just days after Swiggy raised the platform fee to Rs 14, the company has now again hiked the fee and revised it to Rs 15. The hike has been implemented in certain geographies where the company is experiencing rising demand, as per media reports.
As platform fee varies across cities and days depending on order volumes, the reports noted that both Swiggy and Zomato experiment with higher fees before implementing them on a larger scale. The fee increase comes at a crucial moment as Swiggy a net loss of Rs 1,197 crore in the first quarter of the current financial year (Q1FY26), a year-on-year (YoY) increase of 96 per cent, the reports added.
