Online food delivery charges to rise when new GST rules take effect

Morgan Stanley has said that the local e-commerce delivery services will now attract a GST rate of 18%. With this, there will be some changes in the the delivery fees while ordering food online.

GST 2.0, which trims tax slabs to two from four, signals a push for demand-led growth, as per experts. The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council on September 3 approved an overhaul of the indirect tax regime by taxing essentials at 5 per cent and other goods at 18 per cent.

The marathon 56th meeting of the GST Council, the apex decision-making body on indirect taxes, was headed by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman along with representatives of all states.

The rejig, to be effective from September 22, aims to simplify the tax structure, ease compliance, boost disposable income and spur overall demand.

Morgan Stanley has said that the local e-commerce delivery services will now attract a GST rate of 18 per cent. With this, there will be some changes in the the delivery fees while ordering food online.

As per reports, online food delivery charges may increase, with the GST Council deciding to bring local e-commerce delivery services under the section 9(5) of CGST Act.

Morgan Stanley said that for Zomato, food delivery service has a delivery fee of Rs 11-12, which can now rise up to Rs 14.5 per order approximately, which implies there will be an impact of around Rs 2 per order.

"For Zomato, the food delivery services had customer delivery fee of Rs 11-12 in our calculations, which would imply a potential impact of Rs 2 per order," it said.

For Swiggy it said the estimated delivery fee will be approximately Rs 14.5 per order. "We estimate the delivery fee to be approx Rs 14.5 per order and hence the potential impact to be Rs 2.6."

On Blinkit, the delivery fee was part of revenues and was already attracting GST, it added. For Swiggy Instamart, the average delivery fee will be Rs 4 per order.

(With PTI inputs)