Tag: #zomato

Council raises GST on low-cost footwear, garments to 12%

In its first physical meeting in two years, the GST Council on Friday effected several long-pending tweaks in tax rates including an increase in the GST levied on footwear costing less than ₹1,000 as well as readymade garments and fabrics to 12% from 5%.

The new rates on these products, a decision on which had been deferred by the Council over the past year owing to the pandemic’s impact on households, will come into effect from January 1, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said.

The Council approved a special composition scheme for brick kilns with a turnover threshold of ₹20 lakh, from April 1, 2022. Bricks would attract GST at the rate of 6% without input tax credits under the scheme, or 12% with input credits.

While this will please States like Uttar Pradesh that had sought a special scheme for brick kilns, a decision on extending such a scheme for other evasion-prone sectors like pan masala, gutkha and sand mining was put off.


The Council also decided to extend the concessional tax rates granted for COVID-19 medicines like Amphotericin B and Remdesivir till December 31, but similar sops offered by the Council at its last meeting in June for equipment like oxygen concentrators will expire on September 30.

The GST rate on seven more drugs useful for COVID-19 patients has been slashed till December 31 to 5% from 12%, including Itolizumab, Posaconazole and Favipiravir. The GST rate on Keytruda medicine for treatment of cancer has been reduced from 12% to 5%.

Life-saving drugs Zolgensma and Viltepso used in the treatment of spinal muscular atrophy, particularly for children, has been exempted from GST when imported for personal use. These medicines cost about ₹16 crore, Ms. Sitharaman said.

Food delivery tax shift
The Council also decided to make food delivery apps like Swiggy and Zomato liable to collect and remit the taxes on food orders, as opposed to the current system where restaurants providing the food remit the tax.

Revenue Secretary Tarun Bajaj stressed this did not constitute a new or extra tax, just the tax that was payable by restaurants would now be paid by aggregators. Some restaurants were avoiding paying the GST even though it was billed to customers.

“The decision to make food aggregators pay tax on supplies made by restaurants from January 1, 2022, seems to have been done based on empirical data of under reporting by restaurants, despite having collected tax on supplies of food to customers,” said Mahesh Jaising, Partner, Deloitte India.

“The impact on the end consumer is expected to be neutral where the restaurant is a registered one. For those supplies from unregistered, there could be a 5% GST going forward,” he added.

Aircraft on lease
The GST Council has exempted Integrated GST levied on import of aircraft on lease basis. This will help the aviation industry avoid double taxation, the Finance Minister said, and will also be granted for aircraft lessors who are located in Special Economic Zones.

Goods supplied at Indo-Bangladesh border haats have also been exempted from GST.

Written by: Ananya Kaushal

Success Story of Zomato

To start the journey on the highway to success, an entrepreneur needs an idea, one which will set them apart. An idea can be hit by anyone but what comes after this idea is what creates or breaks the business. Desire for something is the first and primary essential. It is tracked by determination and a robust work ethic. Open-mindedness and the skill to recoil back from failure are other vital attributes. Patience is key. An entrepreneur cannot predict results to show in the blink of an eye.

Food is a major force for many. It does come under one of the most essential conveniences for a human being. But waiting for food is something everyone abhors especially when they are hungry. When it comes to a country as active and hardworking as India in its peak lunch hours, getting look at the menu card before ordering food is also a really big problem. Deepinder Goyal and Pankaj Chaddah came up with the absolute solution to the problem of waiting in long queue lines for food. Let’s have a look at how Zomato was started?

How was Zomato founded?

The story of Zomato begun in the organisation of Bain & Company in Delhi. Deepinder and Pankaj worked at this company when they thought of this concept. They saw people standing in a line at mealtime and give the order for their meal when their turn came. From there they got an idea of “Foodiebay” which became a opening to Zomato.

At first, they began scanning all the menu objects of the restaurant and registered them on their intranet website Foodiebay.com. Later on, after seeing a vast flow in their traffic, they decided to introduce their website open to the public.

Funds raised by Zomato

This idea of Deepinder’s and Pankaj’s fascinated Sanjeev Bikhchandani, the creator of Naukri.com. In December of 2010, Sanjeev Bikhchandani offered Zomato funding of 1 million USD through his corporation Info Edge India and from here on, there was no looking back.

In the next round of funding that they got was once again from Info Edge India and this time it was 3.5 million USD and again in the year 2013, Zomato received an astounding 10 million USD from Info Edge India which made Info Edge India an owner of almost 50% of the shares in the start-up. Other stockholders for Zomato include Sequoia Capital, VY Capital, and Temasek. The funds just kept arriving in after this. By the end of 2018, it is estimated that Zomato would’ve received a funding of more than 300 million USD. 

Zomato at a glance

Presently, there are over 100 million Zomato consumers globally and people use the application to get in contact with other foodies around the world so that they can get the finest of food in whatever place possible. This being an additional advantage, big restaurants from around the globe send their advertisements to the Zomato app and this is basically how Zomato makes its money.

As of 2018, Zomato regulates 3 million orders on a monthly basis with 1.4 million restaurants registered on its platform. It is available in 10,000 cities and 23 countries worldwide.