Restaurants Association Terms Covid-19 Restrictions By Maharashtra As Painful Slow Death For An Erstwhile Vibrant Industry

A day after Maharashtra restricted restaurants and bars to operate for only home deliveries and takeaways till 30 April to help contain the Covid-19 pandemic, the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) urged the state government to either allow the industry to operate for normal hours with safeguards and protocols.

If the government cannot allow the industry to operate, NRAI president Anurag Katriar urged the government to suitably compensate its employees, suppliers and landlords for the loss of business, reports The Economic Times.

“We are very saddened with the new guidelines for the restaurant industry which for all practical purposes shut down the sector. To operate only with deliveries, that too up to 8 pm, makes no commercial sense at all,” said Anurag Katriar.

“We were shut for most part of last year. We have been operating at 50 per cent capacity and restricted hours since then. We had just about started seeing some respectable surge in consumption which prompted us to hire back our people and now we are left in a lurch,” he said.

“These new guidelines, which prohibit dining completely and allow only deliveries till 8 pm are meaningless and totally unsustainable. It is like an excruciating and painful slow death for an erstwhile vibrant industry,” he added.

“It is so sad and unfortunate that despite being the sector with an annual turnover of approximately four lakh crore, and contributing almost two per cent of the gross GDP, we still haven’t been considered for any relief package from the government,” he said.

He said that they are also very worried about the fate of 7.3 million employees in the F&B (food and beverages) sector. He added that they don’t want them to suffer but unfortunately don't have adequate resources to support them for long.

Recently, the Hotel and Restaurants Association of Western India (HRAWI) has revealed that these new rules could end up shutting down around 30 per cent of hotels.

Senior vice president of HRAWI Pradeep Shetty said that 30 per cent of hotels that existed prior to the lockdown had closed down permanently already and another 30 per cent of them could proceed in the same direction now. Moreover, only 20 per cent of businesses can be kept operational through online deliveries.