From January 1, ordering food online will be expensive! The government also imposed so much GST on it

This news is for you if you also order food online from home. Now ordering food online will be expensive. Online app-based food delivery platforms like Zomato and Swiggy will now have to pay 5 per cent GST. Online food rates will increase from January 1, 2022. The long-running Food Delivery Services also approved the demand at the GST Council meeting.

The government will have to pay 5 per cent GST on food delivery companies.

The demand for food delivery services to be included in the scope of GST has been going on for a long time and the demand was approved at the GST Council meeting held on December 17. The government has imposed 5 per cent GST on food delivery companies. So far, restaurants are paying the tax, but with the new rules in place, food delivery companies will have to pay the tax. The new system will be implemented across the country from January 1, 2022. However, it does not make any difference to the users as it has already been clarified that the government does not collect this tax from the consumers but from the companies. The new year is going to be heavy for those who order online.

Following the new GST rules, food aggregator apps will have the responsibility to collect taxes from the restaurants they are providing services to and submit them to the government. Earlier restaurants used to collect GST but there is no irregularity in depositing it with the government. Carbonated fruit drinks have become more expensive in food and drink. It will be subject to 28 per cent GST and 12 per cent compensation cess. Before that it was only 28 per cent GST. Other than that, eating ice cream will be expensive. It used to be subject to 5 per cent GST which is now 18 per cent.

The GST Council has recently decided that the food aggregator will not give the restaurant a share of the GST amount received on food ordered on the app but they will pay 5 per cent GST amount to the government themselves. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also took it and clarified that this is not a new tax, only the form of depositing it in the exchequer has been changed to prevent tax evasion.