Food and grocery delivery gets dearer with hike in GST, platform fee

India's top food and grocery delivery platforms are gearing up for the high-stakes festive season with a flurry of charges—a new goods and services tax, higher platform fees, surge pricing, rain fees and long-distance delivery charges—to cash in on the annual demand spike.

- Sowmya Ramasubramanian

The strategy signals a confident bet that customers, driven by convenience, will absorb rising costs.

The government levied 18% GST on delivery services provided by e-commerce operators as it rationalized the tax slabs to two rates from four on Wednesday. Previously, platforms did not charge GST consistently for every order because they were not liable to pay the tax. Now, they will be liable, so they will fully pass on the charge to the user.