Chennai, Mar 10 (PTI) Restaurants across Tamil Nadu are staring at a bleak future with existing stocks expected to last only for one or two days due to a sudden shortage of commercial LPG cylinders, as a result of the West Asia conflict.
Some hotels and restaurants have already cut down on the food items offered in order to reduce the LPG use.
Representatives of the Tamil Nadu and Chennai Hotels Association called on Chief Minister M K Stalin at the Secretariat here and requested his urgent intervention.
“Today, we called on the Chief Minister and apprised him of the situation as it is not sustainable to run the operations under the present circumstances. He assured us that he will take it up with the Prime Minister and also with the Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry… We hope the issue will be sorted out soon,” Tamil Nadu Hotels Association Honorary President M Ravi said.
Ruling out the feasibility of operating the hotels by using traditional wood or coal, he said, “As an alternate methodology, we can shift to commercial induction cooking as the existing infrastructure does not allow us to use wood or coal. Also, it causes pollution.” Asked whether the use of induction stoves would escalate the food price owing to power consumption, he replied that currently, hotels pay a 30 per cent peak hour surcharge on electricity and instead they would pay the GST charges.
“Today, we are paying 30 per cent for usage of power as peak hour charges. Tamil Nadu has become A surplus power producer. In that case, they may allow us to use induction stoves. Second, by using induction stoves we will be paying GST charges (to the government) instead of the hefty 30 per cent charges,” he said.
The hotel body also indicated that the shortage of commercial LPG cylinders would further impact supply of vegetables, payment of salaries to employees, and result in suspension of production.
Earlier, commenting on the shortage of commercial LPG cylinders, Ravi told PTI: “It is like a second COVID-19-enforced lockdown for us. We are cutting down on the usage of LPG cylinders. We have reduced the number of food items. For dosa, tea or coffee, the stove should be receiving LPG supply non-stop. We have cut the number of items now and are providing food only in limited numbers.” To a query, he said, “We expect to run for one or two days with existing stock. If there is no supply of commercial LPG cylinders, we have no other choice but to suspend operations. COVID-19 lockdown-like situation returning.” Meanwhile, Sri Ananda’s, another popular hotel in Chennai, displayed in the menu on Tuesday that due to a shortage of commercial LPG cylinders, food items have been largely reduced.
“All these days, we were operating without facing any crisis in LPG cylinder supply. Today, we have cut down on the list of food items offered to reduce the usage of LPG cylinders. We have stopped preparing fried rice, side dishes, and appam as these items require more LPG. We do not know how long this (supply crisis) will continue.” The Tamil Nadu Hotels Association, a body representing the hotels and restaurants in the State, on March 7, appealed to the Centre to withdraw its order instructing oil marketing companies to suspend commercial LPG cylinders.
On March 6, the government invoked, sparingly used emergency powers to direct oil refineries to ramp up LPG production to increase the availability of domestic cooking gas to avoid potential disruptions due to the widening West Asia conflict.
On March 7, the prices of domestic LPG and commercial cylinders were hiked by Rs 60 and Rs 114.5, respectively. PTI VIJ VIJ ROH
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