Weekend curfew leaves hotels, bars high and dry

Y. Maheswara Reddy | NT

Bengaluru: Thousands of hoteliers, bar and restaurant owners have lost crores of rupees due to the weekend curfew, to contain the spread of Covid, during the last two weeks.

“We have suffered a lot during the first and second waves of Covid pandemic. While the hotel and tourism industry is in recovery mode, the weekend curfew has become a huge hurdle for hoteliers and bar and restaurant owners, not only in the city, but across the state,’’ said Bruhat Bengaluru Hotels Association president P.C. Rao.

According to Rao, there are 24,500 hotels, including 3,500 hotels with lodging facilities and 62 star hotels in the state providing employment to lakhs of people. “We have been demanding the state government to withdraw the week-end curfew in the interest of the hotel and tourism industry,’’ he said.

The Federation of Wine Merchants’ Association vice president Karunakar Hegde has said the state excise department has issued 11,500 licences, including 3,600 licences in Bengaluru, to sell liquor across the state. “Liquor and wine merchants are losing around Rs 100 crore during the week-ends due to the weekend curfew across the state. One has to pay Rs 8,62,500 towards licence fee to sell liquor and Rs 7,50,000 to sell wine in the state,’’ said Karunakar Hegde.

Emphasizing the need to cancel the curfew, Krishna Raju of Nisarga Grand has said that it has become tough for hoteliers to survive due to the weekend curfew. “There was 60 to 70 per cent business before week-end curfew was enforced. Now, the business has come down to 10 to 20 per cent during the weekends. We have to pay tax to the BBMP, rent to the property owner and wages to employees, electricity bill to the Bescom and water bill to the BWSSB irrespective of whether we earn profit or not’’ said Krishna Raju.

He said that there are around 40 people working at Nisarga Grand and he has to pay wages to those who are idle during the week-ends. “I can’t afford to send them home for two days as there is no guarantee that they will come back to duty. I am compelled to pay wages to those employees,’’ he said. Meanwhile, National Restaurant Association of India Bangalore Chapter Head Mukesh Tolani has appealed to the Chief Minister lifting the week-end curfew with immediate effect. “It will allow the industry some breathing space as the industry survives mainly on the business done on weekends,’’ said Tolani.

He has also appealed to the Chief Minister to permit longer working hours for the industry from 10 pm to 11.30 pm on all days since it would reduce overcrowding and the restaurants, bars, pubs and microbreweries can take bookings for patrons in slots at the existing 50 per cent seating capacity norms.

“Covid protocols need to be enforced uniformly across all activities. In this regard, we would like to reiterate that the organized segment of the industry is committed to follow all the protocols, standard operating procedures and will support the government in enforcing the same,” he said.