Economy
After tax evasion, Foodpanda now charged for depriving delivery staff
Foodpanda, an online food and grocery delivery platform owned by Berlin-based Delivery Hero, has been charged with a number of problems – from VAT evasion to supplying substandard foods and depriving delivery staff of their due benefits.
Foodpanda collects food and grocery items from around 5,000 restaurants and stores and delivers products to the doorsteps of consumers through riders or delivery workers across the country under an agreement of sharing commission.
Riders, consumers and insiders of Foodpanda have recently shared their bitter experiences.
“Pulling a rickshaw is better than a Foodpanda job,” a rider said to describe how hard work he has to do throughout the week against very poor pay.
Another delivery man said Foodpanda gives him less when a customer gives some tips. Allah blesses the people in the head office,” he says.
“Foodpanda should be sued as it doesn’t fix basic salary for riders,” said a worker.
Just recently, its riders went on a strike in Dhaka, Rajshahi and Sylhet states on an 8-point demand including increasing delivery rates and other benefits. They said they ensured food deliveries defying all adverse situations but the authorities have been denying them rightful demands over the years.
This is not the end of the complaints against Foodpanda. The food and grocery delivery platform is facing numerous complaints from customers because of providing deficient foods and dilly-dallying in refunding the money in case of order cancellation.
Additionally, Foodpanda was charged with overcharging and on September 11, last month the Directorate of National Consumers’ Rights Protection fined the platform in this connection.
Dodges VAT concealing actual sales
The VAT Intelligence Directorate, in October 2020 conducted a drive at Foodpanda’s head office in Gulshan, where they found evidence of evasion of Tk3.4 crore in Value Added Tax (VAT).
A VAT evasion case was filed against Foodpanda Bangladesh Limited by the directorate and the case is still pending.
During the drive, VAT Intelligence authorities smell that Foodpanda has been doing business since 2013 by registering under Code S-099.10, which does not apply to their type of business.
The company was doing it in order to gain the facility of 0pc VAT on rent, the directorate added.
Foodpanda delivers food by using an electronic network (online platform). The code for these sorts of services is S-099.60. According to the law, they were supposed to pay 5pc VAT on the business and 15pc VAT on rent.
During the raid, sales data of Tk27.58 crore was discovered in a computer for the period of July 2019 to January 2020 and April 2020. But Foodpanda only disclosed sales data of Tk15.65 crore during this period.
The VAT directorate also discovered that in 8 months only the company concealed sales data of Tk11.93 crore from the government.
Foodpanda helps restaurants evade VAT
It receives orders through online-based apps like Pathao Food, Sohoj Food and others and delivers them to the doorsteps of the customers. They are supposed to ensure that the government gets due VAT against the sales. But that was not the case.
Foodpanda did not maintain the actual sales data and it does not provide the details in its VAT return statement, according to the VAT intelligence agency.
Hence, the food supply stores also do not show the sales information that comes from the apps in their VAT returns. By doing so Foodpanda is helping hotels and restaurants evade VAT.
“We have recently visited some restaurants from where Foodpanda gets food. We have found that the government is deprived of due VAT,” said an NBR authority.
The NBR has already started verifying electronic fiscal device information of at least 318 hotels and restaurants that supply food to Foodpanda for its customers.
It has already found VAT dodging evidence against Burger Express, Kaderia Cafe, Street Oven, Cheese Restaurant, Ghost House and Pizza King, according to the authority.
Apart from this, the Dhaka North VAT Commissionerate is investigating whether these hotels and restaurants are evading VAT in collaboration with Foodpanda, Pathao Food, Sohoj Food and other online food service providers.
The overall situation could be worrying for Foodpanda, which claims to be Asia’s largest food delivery company, as it is having a tough time in several other Asian countries, including Myanmar, Thailand, and Hong Kong.
After several phone calls and text messages, Ambareen Reza, co-founder and CEO of Foodpanda Bangladesh, replied in a message that one of her relatives survived a heart attack and she could not comment anything now.
Referring to the countrywide recent havoc and atrocities, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today said that she had an apprehension there might be a strike like this by the BNP-Jamaat clique to pull down the country’s prosperity.
“. . . they (BNP-Jamaat) had wanted not to hold the elections, but we had arranged the elections. After election they thought it wouldn’t be accepted by all, but we’ve also made it acceptable to all and we’ve formed the government. It was an apprehension to me that there would be a strike like this,” she said.
The Premier made this remarks while exchanging views with editors, senior journalists and head of news of various media outlets, organised by Editors’ Guild at her office (PMO).
She mentioned that before and after the election in 2013-14, the BNP-Jmaat clique unleashed arson attacks and killings that left hundreds of people killed and thousands injured.
“It was little bit understandable that this (the activities and movement of the students) was a grave conspiracy,” she said.
Sheikh Hasina said that she didn’t want any incident which might invite any unwanted situation that will invite instability in the country. “It was the target to destroy country’s economy,” she said.
She questioned about the understanding level of the people who supported these mayhem aiming to cripple the country’s advancement and prosperity.
Sheikh Hasina, also the chief of Awami League, said that vested quarter is highly interested to destroy country’s independence and the continuation of the democracy that is going on for long 15 years.
She again said that she never wanted to deploy army personnel in the field while the students were there for the sake of their security.
“While they (students) declared that they are not involved in the on going subversive activities then we called for army,” she said.
The premiers also said that she also didn’t want to impose curfew as the country is going through a democratic environment for 15 years.
She requested the people to resist those who have done this bane for the country. “They have destroyed all the structures have been built for their welfare and livelihood. They have struck all those structures. Who will be the worst sufferer? Of course, mass people. Now it is the responsibility of the mass people to resist these terrorism and militancy,” she said.
The premier called for creating mass awareness against the militancy that has opened in the destructive activities.”If the people don’t become aware then what could we do or how much we could do alone,” she said.
She also mentioned that the targets of the recent mayhem was Awami League, Freedom Fighters and pro-liberation forces.
The Prime Minister said that when all demands of the quota-free movement students were accepted why they gave scope to the militants for doing such heinous activities.
“One day the quota-free movement activists have to answer to the nation, why they gave such opportunity to them for this destruction to the country,” she said.
PM’s Press Secretary Md Nayeemul Islam Khan moderated the programme, while Editors’ Guild president Mozammel Huq Babu delivered welcome address.
Senior journalist Abed Khan, Bangladesh Pratidin editor Nayeem Nizam, DBC Editor-in-Chief and CEO Monzurul Islam, Bhorer Kagoj Editor and Jatiya Press Club general secretary Shyamol Dutta, Daily Jugantor Editor Saiful Alam, Jatiya Press Club president Farida Yasmin, Dhaka Journal chief editor Syed Istiaque Reza, Head of News Nagorik TV Dip Azad, Amader Somoy Editor Mainul Alam, Bangladesh Journal editor Shajahan Sarder, DBC news editor Zayedul Ahsan Pintu, Ashish Saikat of Independent TV, Bangla Tribune editor Zulfiquer Russell, head of News of 71 TV Shakil Ahmed, Energy and Power Editor Mollah Amzad, Head of News of Kings News Nazmul Huq Saikat and Mamunur Rahman Khan of RTV also spoke.
Britain’s inflation rate held steady in June after returning to the Bank of England’s target the previous month, official data showed Wednesday, confounding expectations for another modest slowdown.
The Consumer Prices Index was unchanged at 2.0 percent in June from the same level in May, the Office for National Statistics said in a statement, compared with market forecasts of 1.9 percent.
“Hotel prices rose strongly, while second-hand car costs fell but by less than this time last year,” said ONS chief executive Grant Fitzner.
“However, these were offset by falling clothing prices, with widespread sales driving down their cost.
“Meanwhile, the cost of both raw materials and goods leaving factories fell on the month, though factory gate prices remain above where they were a year ago.”
Analysts said the data could cause the Bank of England to sit tight for a while longer before starting to cut interest rates.
“The chances of an interest rate cut in August have diminished a bit more,” said Paul Dales, chief UK economist at research consultancy Capital Economics.
Last month, the BoE kept its key interest rate at a 16-year high of 5.25 percent, despite slowing inflation in May.
Britain’s newly elected Labour government welcomed news that inflation remained at the BoE’s target level.
“It is welcome that inflation is at target,” said Darren Jones, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, in a statement.
“But we know that for families across Britain prices remain high… (which) is why this government is taking the tough decisions now to fix the foundations” of the UK economy, he said.
Labour, led by new Prime Minister Keir Starmer, has pledged immediate action to grow the economy after the centre-left party won a landslide general election victory to end 14 years of Conservative rule.
Later on Wednesday, King Charles III will read out Labour’s first programme for government in a decade and a half, when the UK parliament formally reopens following the July 4 election.
Elevated interest rates have worsened a UK cost-of-living squeeze because they increase borrowing repayments, thereby cutting disposable incomes and crimping economic activity.
The BoE began a series of rate hikes in late 2021 to combat inflation, which rose after countries emerged from Covid lockdowns and accelerated after the invasion of Ukraine by key oil and gas producer Russia.
China’s economy grew 4.7 percent year-on-year in the second quarter of 2024, official data showed Monday, less than analysts had expected.
“By quarter, the GDP for the first quarter increased by 5.3 percent year on year and for the second quarter 4.7 percent,” Beijing’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said in a statement.
The figures were much lower than the 5.1 percent predicted by analysts polled by Bloomberg.
Retail sales — a key gauge of consumption — also slowed to just two percent in June, the NBS said, down from 3.7 percent in May.
The world’s second-largest economy is grappling with a real estate debt crisis, weakening consumption, an ageing population and trade tensions with Western rivals.
Top officials are meeting in Beijing on Monday for a key plenum, with all eyes on how they might kickstart lacklustre growth.
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