Brands
PhonePe goes live across over 1 mn offline stores in Delhi-NCR
MUMBAI: PhonePe, India’s fastest growing payments platform announced that it is now live as a payment option across 1 million offline merchant outlets in Delhi-NCR. This milestone reflects PhonePe’s phenomenal acceptance across large organised retail stores as well as small and mid-size retail stores in the region.
Speaking on reaching this milestone, PhonePe head – offline business growth Yuvraj Singh Shekhawat said, “Our offline business has seen phenomenal traction in the last one year in Delhi-NCR and customers can now transact seamlessly using PhonePe at both small Kirana stores and larger retail outlets. The entire payments process on PhonePe is extremely fast and seamless ensuring consumers have a convenient experience. We are now live at most organised retail outlets across grocery, fuel, medicines and account for 6 -10 per cent of all non-cash transactions.”
Head – offline business development Vivek Lohcheb added, “We are excited to reach this important milestone in Delhi-NCR. PhonePe has always adopted a partnership model with all its merchants and gone beyond being just a payments service provider. PhonePe's QR allows merchants to accept consumer payments from any UPI app and not just PhonePe alone. For the merchants, this makes the digital payment acceptance process simple and reconciliations seamless. All a merchant needs is a feature phone to get started. We also provide them with visibility on our app where over 150 million users can discover merchants in the vicinity that accept PhonePe, effectively increasing footfalls to their business.”
PhonePe has been rapidly expanding its reach across India and today it has a presence in 150+ cities in India. PhonePe continues to expand into newer geographies enabling even local kiranas to accept payments from consumers through digital payment mediums like UPI, Credit Cards, Debit Cards and Wallets.
PhonePe recently introduced a ‘Stores' tab on the app enabling hyper-local discovery of partner merchants for users. Keeping in mind the daily working capital requirements of merchants PhonePe offers instant settlements along with zero processing fee on UPI transactions. PhonePe has a merchant app as well that facilitates end-to-end control on the payment process for merchants including transaction confirmation and reconciliation.
Brands
Jubilant FoodWorks faces Rs 47.5 crore GST demand, plans appeal
Tax authorities flag alleged misclassification of restaurant services
MUMBAI:Â Jubilant FoodWorks Limited has landed in a tax tussle after receiving a GST demand of Rs 47.5 crore from the office of the additional commissioner of CGST and central excise in Thane, Maharashtra.
The order, issued under the provisions of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017, relates to an alleged incorrect classification of certain services under the category of restaurant services. According to the tax authorities, this classification resulted in a short payment of goods and services tax for the period between the financial years 2019-20 and 2021-22.
The demand includes Rs 47.5 crore in GST along with an equal amount as penalty, in addition to applicable interest. The order was received by the company on March 13, 2026.
In a regulatory filing to the BSE Limited and the National Stock Exchange of India Limited, the company said it disagrees with the order and believes its arguments were not adequately considered.
The company is preparing to challenge the decision and plans to file an appeal. It added that once the redressal process is complete, the demand is likely to be dropped.
Despite the sizeable figure attached to the notice, the company said it does not expect any material impact on its financials, operations or other activities.
The disclosure was signed by Suman Hegde, EVP and chief financial officer, who confirmed that the company received the order at 19:06 IST on March 13 and has already initiated steps to contest it.
The development places the quick service restaurant major in the middle of a tax debate that could hinge on how certain restaurant-linked services are classified under GST rules. For now, the company appears ready to take the matter from the tax office to the appeals desk.
