Hotels and restaurants across Kerala will go on a strike on tomorrow unless the government intervenes to rein in increasing prices of cooking gas cylinders for commercial purposes that threaten the existence of the industry. This is the position the Kerala Hotel and Restaurant Association (KHRA), with about 10,000 members, has taken in response to what it perceives as an unjust rise in the price of cooking gas cylinders effected on a monthly basis.
The token strike called by the association in Kerala's Ernakulam district on Monday when hotels will remain closed is a prelude to the state-wide action on the anvil. “Monday's strike is to draw people's attention to the crisis faced by us due to the frequent price rise of cooking gas, which often goes unnoticed by customers. The prices of vegetables and groceries are not coming down either,” said Jose Mohan, State General Secretary, KHRA. From Rs 800 last April, the price of a cooking gas cylinders supplied to hotels and restaurants has more than doubled to Rs 1,796 this April, compared to the prevailing price of Rs 424 for a domestic gas cylinder. According to The Hindu report, the office bearers of the association recently met the Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Jaipal Reddy to take up their case. “However, the price went up by another Rs 269 this month immediately after that meeting in which we convinced the minister about our plight,” Mohan said. The minister had promised a national level tariff for hotels. Unless that or some other remedy is worked out the hotels will have no other way but to close down, Mohan added. A medium-class hotel uses up about three cooking gas cylinders a day thus running up a cost of Rs 5,388 on that count alone. Mohan claimed that a cup of tea served to a customer consumes cooking gas worth Rs 3, in addition to the cost of manpower engaged in preparing tea, serving it and washing the glass used to serve it. Asked whether the association will be forced to hike the price of food served through hotels, he said that the association did not give a directive to increase or reduce price. A uniform hike or reduction is not practical as the cost involved in the running of a hotel depends on a variety of factors including the location and number of employees. A hotel in the city may employ staff and may run up cost in terms of their salary and even uniform, while one in a village or in the suburb may be run by a husband-wife duo or family members. Besides, the same product may contain different ingredients in different hotels resulting in variation in the price charged, Mohan argued. The district units of the association are busy with the vehicle campaign of the state meeting scheduled to be held in Ernakulam on April 22, 2012. Once it is over, the executive meeting will be convened to chart out a state-wide action plan on the issue, stated the report.
Source
Search Accounts Jobs in India
The token strike called by the association in Kerala's Ernakulam district on Monday when hotels will remain closed is a prelude to the state-wide action on the anvil. “Monday's strike is to draw people's attention to the crisis faced by us due to the frequent price rise of cooking gas, which often goes unnoticed by customers. The prices of vegetables and groceries are not coming down either,” said Jose Mohan, State General Secretary, KHRA. From Rs 800 last April, the price of a cooking gas cylinders supplied to hotels and restaurants has more than doubled to Rs 1,796 this April, compared to the prevailing price of Rs 424 for a domestic gas cylinder. According to The Hindu report, the office bearers of the association recently met the Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Jaipal Reddy to take up their case. “However, the price went up by another Rs 269 this month immediately after that meeting in which we convinced the minister about our plight,” Mohan said. The minister had promised a national level tariff for hotels. Unless that or some other remedy is worked out the hotels will have no other way but to close down, Mohan added. A medium-class hotel uses up about three cooking gas cylinders a day thus running up a cost of Rs 5,388 on that count alone. Mohan claimed that a cup of tea served to a customer consumes cooking gas worth Rs 3, in addition to the cost of manpower engaged in preparing tea, serving it and washing the glass used to serve it. Asked whether the association will be forced to hike the price of food served through hotels, he said that the association did not give a directive to increase or reduce price. A uniform hike or reduction is not practical as the cost involved in the running of a hotel depends on a variety of factors including the location and number of employees. A hotel in the city may employ staff and may run up cost in terms of their salary and even uniform, while one in a village or in the suburb may be run by a husband-wife duo or family members. Besides, the same product may contain different ingredients in different hotels resulting in variation in the price charged, Mohan argued. The district units of the association are busy with the vehicle campaign of the state meeting scheduled to be held in Ernakulam on April 22, 2012. Once it is over, the executive meeting will be convened to chart out a state-wide action plan on the issue, stated the report.
Source
Search Accounts Jobs in India