New Delhi, May 11 (IANS): Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal on Monday announced to extend all Gold memberships across countries by four more months.

In March, Zomato extended Gold memberships by two months, acknowledging that dining out plans would be affected in COVID-19 pandemic, hoping things would get better quickly.

The new announcement covers India, the UAE, Australia, New Zealand, Portugal, Philippines, Indonesia, Turkey and Lebanon.

"India and all our other Gold countries are still a few months away from being able to use and enjoy their Zomato Gold benefits. In India though, members continue to avail Gold privileges on food delivery," tweeted Goyal.

"We will continue to monitor the situation very closely, and make every effort to ensure customer and staff safety when restaurants open up again and are ready to welcome Gold members," he added.

The company has also made its "contactless dining" free for all restaurants across India and other global destinations for a period of at least six months.

Restaurants in India, the UAE, Australia, New Zealand, Turkey, Portugal, Philippines, Indonesia, and Lebanon will have to only bear the payment gateway fee and Zomato won't charge any fee from them.

"This will inevitably exert significant pressure on our own finances, but I am sure we will survive if the restaurant industry does well. We are all in this together," Goyal said last month.

Contactless dining has three main components, contactless menu, contactless ordering and contactless payment.

Zomato said it is building additional features on the app -- such as the ability to order multiple courses, and the option to pay for self or the entire table -- to ensure a hassle-free dining experience.