Discounts, incentives not funded by govt money, clarifies ONDC CEO Koshy

CEO of Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) T Koshy on Thursday revealed that no government money is being used to offer discounts and incentives on its platform.

In an interview with Moneycontrol, ONDC chief said, "ONDC, as the network orchestrator, has introduced certain limited interventions and incentives for a limited period to jumpstart the network and to support broad-based adoption. This support is given to the network participants from ONDC's funds. None of these incentives provided by ONDC are from the government budget."

Koshy's statement comes in response to questions that are now being raised over the source of funds for discounts and incentives offered on the platform. ONDC is a government-backed platform, that helps businesses. 

Recently, ONDC has gained a lot of traction because of the stiff competition it is posing to major food aggregators like Swiggy and Zomato. However, according to the company, ONDC is much more than that, as it aims to facilitate an ecosystem for e-commerce.

Rs 180 crore was raised from 19 banks and according to the Moneycontrol report, ONDC's own funds essentially comprised the amount. Ever since its inception in 2021, the government of India has not put in any money. The report further added that when ONDC was being planned as a project under the Quality Council of India, it was the only time when the taxpayers' money was used.

Multiple discounts and incentives that are currently being offered on ONDC took social media by storm and have pushed 'ONDC's daily order volumes up 2.5 times in just a span of a few days.'

CEO also added that the company and its network participants are constantly revising the older incentives and coming out with new ones. 

The platform is also planning a scheme with Sidbi, where the employees be given Rs 10,000 each to spend on small merchants and artisans onboarded by it.