Jeff Bezos teams up with Narayana Murthy to enter India’s food delivery biz

Amazon’s entry in the food delivery business comes at a time when Zomato and Swiggy have started cutting back on discounts

Amazon is all set to start its food delivery business in India from Bengaluru next month, says a news report in The Economic Times. The launch of the service, which would be offered as part of either Amazon’s Prime Now or Amazon Fresh platform, could happen as soon as next month. With this, Amazon will take on estabished players such as Zomato and Swiggy.

Executives at two restaurants, who did not want to be named, confirmed that Prione Business Services, a joint venture between Infosys cofounder NR Narayana Murthy’s Catamaran Ventures and Amazon India, has been signing contracts with brands to list on Amazon, offering 10-15% commissions, the report said. The report points out the e-commerce giant had already started pilot testing its service in select parts of Bengaluru, and by March, it will be rolling out to other parts of the country, says a news report in Dainik Bhaskar

Amazon’s entry into the food delivery market would create new challenges for Prosus Ventures -backed Swiggy, and Zomato, a 10-year-old startup that acquired Uber’s Eats business in India for about $180 million in January. Amazon’s entry in the food delivery business comes at a time when Zomato and Swiggy have started cutting back on discounts. Last month, Bezos told the audience at an Amazon event in New Delhi that the company plans to invest $1 billion in India.

‘Food doesn’t have religion’: Zomato after customer seeks non-Muslim rider

The company stood its ground and refused to change the delivery executive

Food delivery company Zomato is winning the internet after it refused on Wednesday to resolve a customer’s complaint about being assigned a Muslim delivery executive for his food order.

“Food doesn’t have a religion. It is a religion,” the company tweeted in response to the customer’s request for change of the rider. On Tuesday night, a man tweeted about cancelling his order placed on Zomato as the designated rider was a “non-Hindu”.

“Just cancelled an order on Zomato they allocated a non hindu rider for my food they said they can’t change rider and can’t refund on cancellation I said you can’t force me to take a delivery I don’t want don’t refund just cancel,” Amit Shukla, a resident of Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh, tweeted.

In a series of tweets, he also shared screenshots of his conversation with Zomato’s customer care, saying he would take up the issue with his lawyers. The company stood its ground and refused to change the delivery executive. ..(Read More)

From Swiggy to Foodpanda, online food delivery service firms face GST heat

Food delivery services are taxed at 18% which the restaurants have to pay

 

Online food delivery service companies like Swiggy are facing the heat from restaurants after the goods and services tax (GST) on eating outlets was cut to five per cent, from 18 per cent in November, and input tax credit provision was withdrawn.

Some restaurants have started charging higher prices on online food delivery platforms. Others are negotiating a commission cut with online food delivery partners to make up for the 3.5 per cent additional cost due to unavailability of the input tax credit (ITC) facility.

Swiggy, Zomato and Foodpanda provide online delivery services to restaurants at a commission of around 20 per cent, which is levied an 18 per cent GST. Unlike earlier, restaurants can no longer claim ITC on the 18 per cent GST for the input services from these delivery platforms. “These online food delivery companies have represented for a rate reduction or to allow ITC to restaurants. The matter is being discussed," said a government official.

Swiggy, which holds about 60 per cent market share and delivers 450,000 orders a day, has approached the government for rate reduction to five per cent.

Food delivery services are taxed at 18 per cent, which the restaurants have to pay. But, they cannot now avail of any tax credit against input services.

A senior executive of a major online food delivery player said they had been under pressure from restaurants to cut margins by three to four per cent. He added other restaurants had, on their own, increased the prices on their platform. “We do not have an exact number but many restaurants are slowly increasing the prices on online delivery platforms, which is a setback,” he added.

Swiggy told Business Standard, "The high GST rate of 18 per cent on online food delivery service providers and ineligibility of credit of such GST charged to the restaurants could have an adverse impact on growth of the sector." A reduction in GST rates will keep food costs affordable and create more jobs in the sector, while furthering the government’s initiatives on Digital India, it added

Queries to Zomato remained unanswered.

A little more than 100,000 restaurants have partnered with these online food delivery service providers and around 70 per cent of orders on these platforms are through digital payments, according to an industry study shared with the government.

“Specific to the restaurant sector, as no ITC is allowed, any GST paid is a cost, which would influence restaurants to avoid incurring such expenses, attracting high GST. The only way to encourage use of technology and to incentivise restaurants to use online delivery partners is by reducing the GST rate, which would aid to the growth of this theme” said Kunal Wadhwa, partner — indirect tax, PwC India

Riyaaz Amlani, chief executive officer of Impresario Entertainment & Hospitality and immediate past-president of NRAI said they couldn’t claim ITC on delivery charges they paid to online delivery service firms like Zomato and Swiggy, which is a pain point.

According to a top executive of a popular multinational fast-food chain, the matter should get resolved soon. "Paying 18 per cent GST on deliveries and other heads without ITC is not feasible. Else, one would have to hike prices on the menu," he added.

Read More : Swiggy

Do you order food on Zomato? Beware! Hackers may have stolen your data

Records of 17 mn users up for sale on the Dark Web; Zomato says users' payment info still secure

 

#COMPANIES|Zomato users should start taking steps to secure their personal information. According to a blog post by India's largest online restaurant guide, about 17 million user records have been stolen from their database. The stolen information, according to Zomato, has user email addresses and hashed passwords.

So, how bad is the hack? The company claims that payment-related information is stored separately from the stolen data "in a highly secure PCI Data Security Standard (DSS) compliant vault". Zomato has claimed that no payment information or credit card data has been stolen or leaked. 

Also, the post claims that the hashed passwords cannot be converted or decrypted back to plain text, thereby preserving their "sanctity". However, the post advises users to change their passwords, especially if they use the same password for any other online services.| read more.... 

ALSO READ:   Infosys to hire nearly 20,000 engineers from campuses

ALSO READ:   Made in India iPhones to hit stores this month

ALSO READ:  crisis: Markets rule out impeachmeTrump nt, but stay cautious