Eating out may turn a costly affair as Centre hikes commercial LPG cylinder prices
Hyderabad: Your favourite Hyderabadi Dum Biryani or Jeera Rice with Dal or even the Irani Chai are all set to get costlier and eating out will burn a hole in your wallet – all thanks to the new price hike on commercial LPG cylinders announced by the Centre.
Along with this, there is the double whammy of rising fuel prices and hike in cost of other food materials such as wheat, oil and vegetables.
A ravaging pandemic, rising fuel prices and hike in food items had already impacted the hotel and restaurant industry in the last two years. And now the price hike of commercial LPG cylinders has accentuated the pressure even more with many hoteliers considering to increase the cost of food by 10-15 per cent in the coming few months. In the last few months, the prices at restaurants and eateries had already gone up by 10 per cent.
“The fuel prices have gone up drastically in the last few months and in addition to that, there has been an average increase of 10 per cent on raw materials ranging from oil to vegetables. We have been trying to cut our margins so as to not burden the customers but we could not avoid it and had to hike the cost by 10 per cent in the last one year. Now, with the gas prices also going up it might mean another 10-15 per cent cost increase for end users,” Shravan Juvvadi, founder and owner, Tabula Rasa, told Telangana Today.
“Post lockdown there has been an average of 25 per cent hike in different food products which is impacting our business margins heavily and we are forced to pass on the hike to customers. We are anticipating another 10-15 per cent price hike going ahead,” says Irfan Syed, co-owner, Subhan Bakery.
According to Taj Hotels’ Praveen Rao, other than provisions that have seen a 15 per cent hike, oil rates have gone up with it costing Rs 1,000 per tin. “In addition to this, a 47 kg commercial LPG cylinder has been increased by Rs 670 which will become a big issue for us. We are still gauging the situation and in the coming days there is going to be a big inflation,” he said.
