The shareholder letter can be accessed here.
“What we’re trying to do essentially is increase the overall revenue per order by increasing the platform fee and then channel that revenue to a select cohort of customers in select geographies where we are seeing growth,” Eternal (formerly Zomato) chief financial officer (CFO) Akshant Goyal told analysts during the company’s Q4FY26 earnings call on April 28, referring to Zomato’s platform fee strategy.
The Q4FY26 call and shareholders’ letter also show Blinkit’s near-term growth guidance revised downward, a goods and services tax (GST) dispute crossing Rs 420 crore unresolved, District’s tech stack transferred to a subsidiary with no public disclosure on accountability, and a workforce composition shift complicating incoming gig worker social security rules.
All users pay. Only some get back. Eternal raised Zomato’s platform fee by 19% to Rs 14.90 in March 2026, with Swiggy following days later. The fee now accounts for 4-5% of the average order value. A September 2025 hike had taken it from Rs 10 to Rs 12, and later to Rs 12.50. Eternal did not respond to MediaNama’s queries on the March hike at the time.
“The platform fee is applicable to all customers, but the offers or discounts can be targeted to a certain cohort of customers who are more price sensitive, or in certain locations and geographies where subsidies actually deliver growth,” Akshant said.
In the shareholders’ letter, co-founder Deepinder Goyal confirmed that from Q2FY26, Eternal lowered the minimum order value for free delivery to Rs 99 from Rs 199 for Gold members, curated meals under Rs 250 for budget-conscious users, and stepped up targeted activation for this segment. “A declining net average order value (NAOV) is a natural and intended consequence of this strategy,” he wrote, adding that revenue per order continues to improve and margins have remained stable even as the order mix shifts toward lower-value orders.
The subsidies are allocated at Eternal’s discretion with no public criteria for eligibility. Neither the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 nor any sector regulator has addressed this two-track model.
Will Blinkit hit its targets? Blinkit will not hit 100% growth in FY27 as earlier guidance had implied. “It will not be 100% but we are not guiding to a specific number,” Akshant said, with the revised expectation closer to 70-80% for FY27.
On competition, Blinkit chief executive Albinder Singh Dhindsa was direct: “High competition can have adverse impact in certain periods of time, like the one we are going through now, where aggressive discounting is leading to poor-quality growth centred around select low-margin SKUs.” The company’s response is to hold the line.
“The only non-negotiable here is quality growth which actually meaningfully also takes the business towards profitability and sustainability,” Dhindsa said.
Akshant confirmed no plans to match Swiggy’s Toing, a budget food delivery app Swiggy launched in 2025 with no platform or delivery fees. “We are very confident of maintaining our pricing discipline,” Dhindsa added.
On customer retention, Akshant said Eternal has not seen meaningful impact despite being more expensive in certain geographies: “We haven’t seen much impact on customer retention despite us being sort of more expensive for customers in certain geographies. Most of this is on account of the acceleration in new customer addition.”
The three-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) guidance of 60% net order value (NOV) growth is built on three levers:
On user saturation, Akshant was unequivocal: “We don’t see any concern in terms of monthly transacting users (MTU) or user penetration reaching closer to saturation levels in the foreseeable future.”
What else did the call reveal?
Deepinder steps back, Albinder takes the wheel. Deepinder Goyal resigned as Managing Director and chief executive officer (CEO) effective February 1, 2026, with Albinder appointed CEO from the same date. Deepinder was subsequently appointed Vice Chairman and Non-Executive Director from March 13, 2026,
However, the shareholders’ letter remains largely Deepinder’s voice, suggesting strategic direction stays with him even as operational leadership shifts.
District tech transfer raises accountability questions. In August 2024, Eternal acquired Orbgen Technologies Private Limited and Wasteland Entertainment Private Limited from One 97 Communications (Paytm) for Rs 2,048 crore. Eternal has since transferred District’s technology stack and certain employees to Wasteland Entertainment for Rs 24.19 crore.
Eternal has not disclosed which entity now holds consumer-facing accountability for District. The Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act requires a data fiduciary to be clearly identified. The Information Technology (IT) Act requires a clearly identified intermediary for liability purposes.
Neither obligation has been publicly addressed following the transfer. On the call, Akshant confirmed no plans to add new categories to District and said travel is not a focus area.
GST dispute over delivery charges crosses Rs 420 crore. Per Note 6 of the Q4FY26 consolidated financial results, GST authorities have issued demand orders and show cause notices (SCNs) totalling Rs 420 crore for October 2019 to March 2022 across all states, with additional notices for Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat for subsequent periods. The company says it has “a strong case on merits.”
The dispute traces back to a November 2023 Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI) demand notice to Zomato for non-payment of GST on delivery charges worth over Rs 400 crore. MediaNama has tracked multiple subsequent state-level notices, including West Bengal alone issuing three notices across consecutive fiscal years.
Eternal’s position is that delivery charges are collected on behalf of gig workers who fall below the GST registration threshold of Rs 20 lakh annual turnover. The government’s position is that Eternal, as the e-commerce operator, must pay GST at 18% on those charges.
Note 6 also discloses that from September 22, 2025, the government extended Section 9(5) of the Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) Act, 2017 to cover local delivery services through e-commerce operators by unregistered providers. Eternal now pays GST on such charges going forward, conceding the government’s position for future transactions while the Rs 420 crore historical dispute stays contested.
Who pays for the labour codes? Per Note 9 of the Q4FY26 financial results, the government notified four Labour Codes in November 2025, including the Code on Social Security, 2020, with draft rules released December 30, 2025 but not yet operative. Eternal says current provisions have no material financial impact.
The draft rules would require platform aggregators to contribute 1-2% of annual turnover toward social security for gig and platform workers. On the Q3FY26 call, Akshant said the company could “either absorb that cost or pass it on to customers.” Eternal’s track record on the platform fee, raising it across all users to fund subsidies for select cohorts, suggests passing costs on is the more likely response.
“We are seeing more and more part timers also delivering and that actually increases the active partners but reduces the number of orders they do per shift per day,” Dhindsa said.
Average monthly active delivery partners grew 30% year-on-year while food delivery order growth was only 15% year-on-year. Eternal’s stated position is to assess the impact once final rules are notified, even as its own data shows the workforce shifting toward part-time work, which complicates social security frameworks designed around stable employment.
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