Swiggy Gets Tax Demand Of INR 7.6 Cr From Maharashtra Govt

The Maharashtra government has ordered Swiggy to pay INR 7.59 Cr in back taxes for alleged violation of professional tax deduction from employees salary.

The Office of the Profession Tax Officer in Pune sent a tax demand order to Swiggy on April 4, the company said in an exchange filing.

Tax authorities alleged that the foodtech major “violated” provisions pertaining to deduction of ‘Profession Tax’ from the employees salary under the Maharashtra State Tax on Professions, Trades, Callings & Employments Act, 1975.

Swiggy plans to challenge the tax authorities as it believes it has strong arguments against the tax demand order.

At 9:58 AM, shares of Swiggy were trading 5.71% lower at INR 317.95 apiece on the BSE.

Tax Troubles Put Swiggy In Distress

Swiggy has received several other tax notices from various GST authorities across the country, the biggest of which was INR 500 Cr GST demand pertaining to allegedly unpaid tax on delivery fees collected by the platform as its revenue.

It is important to note that in January 2022, the Centre added ‘restaurant services’ and cloud kitchens under the purview of Section 9(5) of the CGST Act, 2017, which led to the likes of Swiggy and Zomato paying 5% GST on ‘restaurant services’ they offer.

Earlier this month, Swiggy was slapped with a tax demand order of INR 158 Cr from the Income Tax department for allegedly wrongfully availing deductions for “cancellation charges paid to merchants”. 

What’s Been Happening At Swiggy? 

Swiggy’s tax woes come against the backdrop of the foodtech major’s efforts to improve its bottom line and turn profitable. The Sriharsha Majety-led company has been aggressively expanding into newer segments. Most recently, it forayed into the B2B restaurant supply chain segment with Assure, pitting itself against Zomato’s Hyperpure vertical.

Swiggy has also been doubling down on its quick commerce business Instamart. In March, the company said that Instamart has expanded its services to 32 new cities so far in 2025, taking its pan-India presence to over 100 cities.

In a bid to scale its revenue, the company also launched 15-minute food delivery service under SNACC, concierge services under ‘Rare Life’ and services marketplace Yello. Last year, it also launched Swiggy Scenes to strengthen its events ticketing play. 

Recently, BofA Securities downgraded Swiggy’s stock to ‘underperform’ from its previous ‘buy’ rating, citing concerns over further slowdown in the food delivery segment and rising losses in the quick commerce segment.

Swiggy saw its consolidated net loss widen 39.1% to INR 799 Cr in the third quarter of the fiscal year 2024-25 (FY25) from INR 574.4 Cr in the year-ago quarter. The degrowth in the bottom line came despite its operating revenue growing nearly 31% to INR 3,993.1 Cr during the quarter from INR 3,048.6 Cr in Q3 FY24.