Zomato hikes platform fee to Rs 4 across key cities after bumper NY Eve

Buoyed by record food orders on New Year’s Eve, food delivery platform Zomato increased its mandatory platform fee to Rs 4 from Rs 3 per order across key markets.

The new rates were effective from January 1.

New Year’s Eve saw Zomato temporarily increasing its platform fee as high as Rs 9 per order in certain markets.

The company’s shares opened high (were hovering around Rs 126 in morning) on Tuesday after international brokerage firm CLSA remained bullish on its stock.

In August last year, Zomato introduced a Rs 2 platform fee to improve its margins and become profitable.

The company later increased the platform fee to Rs 3 before raising it again on January 1 to Rs 4. The new platform fee is levied on all customers, including Zomato Gold.

Zomato and its quick commerce platform Blinkit saw highest-ever orders and bookings on the New Year’s Eve, compared to previous years.

“We have delivered almost as many orders on NYE 23 as we did on NYE 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 combined. Excited about the future!” Zomato Founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal posted on X.

Albinder Dhindsa, CEO, Blinkit said they crossed the total number of orders they did on NYE 2022 in the evening only.

“We’ve already hit highest-ever orders in a day, OPM (orders per minute), soft drinks and tonic water sold in a day, chips sold in a day, tips given to riders in a day (thank you India),” Dhindsa informed.

Meanwhile, Zomato received notices from the tax authorities in Delhi and Karnataka over alleged short payment of goods and services tax (GST) amounting to Rs 4.2 crore.

Zomato said it will appeal against the tax demand notices.

This came after Zomato received Rs 400 crore show-cause notice from the goods and services tax authorities over unpaid dues collected as “delivery charges”.