Now, Zomato Initiates ITR Filing For Its Delivery Partners

Foodtech major Zomato has started facilitating income tax return (ITR) filings by its delivery partners to enable the latter to get refunds on their TDS deduction.

Cofounder and CEO Deepinder Goyal made this announcement on X today. “With this initiative, most of our delivery partners will be filing taxes for the first time in their lives, which should make their lives easier in the long run – for example – they will be able to get access to structured credit, they will qualify for scholarships for their kids at various educational institutions, etc.”

He further added that within 48 hours of going live on the Zomato Delivery Partner app, more than 1 Lakh partners have initiated their ITR filing.

Goyal said that the company paid a total of more than INR 4,000 Cr to its delivery partners last year, accounting for 40 Cr as the TDS amount (as 1% is deducted as TDS). 

It is pertinent to note that the government mandated businesses like Zomato and Swiggy to deduct 1% as TDS from the delivery partner payouts.

This development comes a few days after Goyal entered the billionaire club with the company’s shares hitting INR 230 mark on July 15. Notably, Goyal owns 36.95 Cr shares in the company which is expected to be worth over INR 8,400 Cr ($1 Bn). 

Earlier this month, Zomato faced a goods and service tax (GST) demand notice of INR 9.45 Cr from the Assistant Commissioner of Commercial Taxes (Audit) in Karnataka. Under this, Zomato is asked to pay GST of INR 5,01,95,462 ( INR 5.01 Cr), which will be marked up with an interest charge of INR 3.93 Cr, and a penalty of INR 50.19 Lakh. 

On the business front, the company has witnessed several developments with Motilal Oswal offloading Zomato’s 2.6 Cr shares in a block deal worth INR 645 Cr emerging as the latest one. Not to mention that the listed startup along with its counterpart Swiggy was reported to hike the platform fee to INR 6 per order in its key markets, including Delhi and Bengaluru.

Zomato’s Friday trading session closed at INR 218.80, a marginal decline from its previous close at INR 220.