Hyderabad: A local consumer court on Saturday asked food delivery service Swiggy and a restaurant to pay Rs 2,000 to a customer who was charged an extra amount of Rupees three on GST for biryani.
The case dates back to September 2019 when complainant K Murali Kumar Reddy a resident of Himayatnagar had ordered a chicken biryani from Biryani House in Musheerabad. Kumar had used a coupon to purchase biryani which originally cost Rs 200.
Upon using the coupon, the biryani cost him Rs 140, however, the delivery executive collected Rs 10 as GST charges, while the GST charges at that time were Rs 7. Based on the petition filed by Kumar against Swiggy and Biryani house, Hyderabad District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission-3 asked the defendants to pay Rs 2000.
Apart from the compensation, the commission has also ordered the defendants to pay Rs 1000 to Kumar as compensation. In its defence, Swiggy said, “We cannot be held liable for the wrong GST charging as the prices are decided by the merchants/restaurant. We are protected by the provisions of section 79 of the Information Technology Act, 2000.” Adding that the invoice submitted by Kumar as evidence is merely an acknowledgement of the order.
However, Biryani House denied charging the excess amount and said, “We deliver food to Swiggy at the agreed price. The alleged tax collected is purely a business affair of Swiggy.”
