Kerala hotels shut today against steep hike in LPG

January 03, 2014 09:13

The Kerala Hotels and Restaurants Association (KHRA) announced hotels and restaurants in the state would remain closed on Friday against a steep hike in the price of commercial LPG cylinders, which came into effect on 1 January.

Post the hike, the new price stands at Rs 2,207 per cylinder, a one stroke increase of Rs 386. This is for the first time that the commercial LPG is priced beyond Rs 2,000.

Sudheesh, president of the 25,000-member KHRA, told Business Standard the hotel industry in the state was already facing a severe crisis due to higher prices of essential items, meat and fish for the last one year. Hence, the government should withdraw the price hike with immediate effect, he said.

A medium range hotel requires three cylinders daily and the additional daily burden comes to around Rs 1,200. This badly affects profits as the margin in the business is very thin now, he said. Most of the medium and small size hotels and restaurants in Kerala work on a margin of 10 -12 per cent.

Apart from this, the Kerala government had banned import of beef from other states due to spread of footand-mouth disease, which triggered spiraling prices of other meat items like chicken, pork and mutton.

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