In early 2019, the CEO of foodpanda’s APAC region visited Pakistan and held a meeting with then finance minister Asad Umar. In the beginning of the conversation, the CEO laid down his company’s concerns regarding FBR taxing the company on the GMV instead of revenue.
Exactly 7-minutes into the discussion, the minister asks the CEO to pause and says: “Gentlemen, let’s take a step back. Can you explain what is foodpanda?” After the meeting was over, the foodpanda CEO wryly said: “The minister talked to us for 45-minutes without knowing what foodpanda was.”
This happened three years ago, so why bring it up today? Because while it’s a reflection of how the government embarrasses itself, it’s a stark reminder for the technology industry that the government does not support them beyond acknowledgements and awards: the said matter of taxation by FBR still lingers on.
And also because nothing has changed in those three years.
On March 3, an event was hosted at the President House by a little known BizNet. The event was hosted to celebrate, as the presenter called it, a “massive success of the tech heroes” achieved in the past year by raising huge capital for startups. The awards were handed over by President Arif Alvi to startups Airlift, Bykea, Finja, Cheetay, and TAG for raising substantial funds. An unusual recipient of the award was Unilever Pakistan, which was given an award for backing Munchies, a quick commerce startup, with investment.
Since the event was about celebrating startups for raising investments, it would be fair to say that Munchies was on that list instead of Unilever but could not be an appropriate nominee for the event because of an unfortunate turn of circumstances: a day before the event took place, news of Munchies shutting down broke.
Munchies shutting down should serve as a warning of how things can quickly take a turn for the worse in the startup space. Just five months ago, Munchies announced raising $2.5 million in pre-seed funding and was continuing on a strong growth trajectory. Munchies closure should also serve as a warning to the government that measures like acknowledging startups for raising investments, repeatedly, by giving them an award are superficial and premature.
Not only is it artificial and premature, the government’s disposition towards tech companies has been callous and disrespectful in some instances. The content in this publication is expensive to produce. But unlike other journalistic outfits, business publications have to cover the very organizations that directly give them advertisements. Hence, this large source of revenue, which is the lifeblood of other media houses, is severely compromised on account of Profit’s no-compromise policy when it comes to our reporting. No wonder, Profit has lost multiple ad deals, worth tens of millions of rupees, due to stories that held big businesses to account. Hence, for our work to continue unfettered, it must be supported by discerning readers who know the value of quality business journalism, not just for the economy but for the society as a whole.To read the full article, subscribe and support independent business journalism in Pakistan
I don’t see the governments point of view in this? Were they contacted? An ex CEO would not know the basic function of Foodpanda – I find that hard to believe, his question may have been rhetorical! Please think of yourself as a serious publication and not write these hit pieces. Or write in bold that it is clearly an ‘opinion’ piece from the author and keep it in the opinions section not as a featured article on the main page.
Exactly 7-minutes into the discussion, the minister asks the CEO to pause and says: “Gentlemen, let’s take a step back. Can you explain what is foodpanda?” After the meeting was over, the foodpanda CEO wryly said: “The minister talked to us for 45-minutes without knowing what foodpanda was.”
good post keep it up
In early 2019, the CEO of foodpanda’s APAC region visited Pakistan and held a meeting with then finance minister Asad Umar. In the beginning of the conversation, the CEO laid down his company’s concerns regarding FBR taxing the company on the GMV instead of revenue.
The minister asks the CEO to pause and says: “Gentlemen, let’s take a step back. Can you explain what is foodpanda?” After the meeting was over, the foodpanda CEO wryly said: “The minister talked to us for 45-minutes without knowing what foodpanda was.”
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