Your Zomato and Swiggy food orders may get costlier from January 1, here is why

If you order your food from Zomato and Swiggy, you may need to pay more from January 1 because of the government's new order around GST.

If your favourite pastime is ordering food from Zomato and Swiggy, it may soon get costlier. From January, all food delivery apps will be liable to pay a 5 per cent goods and services tax, otherwise known as GST, on their restaurant services, per government orders. And this new charge may be offloaded to the users of these food delivery apps. That means you.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, at the 45th meeting of the GST Council held in September earlier this year, announced the change in tax regime for hyperlocal food ordering services. She proposed that platforms such as Swiggy and Zomato should pay GST on behalf of their partner restaurants, including cloud kitchens and central kitchens, whose services are available through their apps. The proposal was accepted and will now kick in from the first day of 2022, i.e. January 1.