BENGALURU: With curbs imposed yet again amid the COVID surge, many sectors in Bengaluru face a further blow even as they are still trying to recover from the losses they had incurred over the lack of New Year celebrations as well as previous restrictions.
Guidelines announced by the government on January 4 have imposed restrictions on restaurants, cinemas, shopping complexes as well as other industries. However, many sectors are unsure of how they will cope with the loss of revenue during this period.
“There is no point in operating our cinema halls, because producers have seen the amount of revenue loss that will occur and have refused to release films for the next few weeks,” said K V Chandrashekhar, president of the Karnataka Film Distributors Association. He went on to say that most cinemas would remain shut despite having the freedom to operate at 50% capacity, since they had no new films to show. “At most, it’s two to three days of revenue a week, as we aren’t allowed to operate on weekends and footfall is already reduced due to the pandemic,” he said.
ALSO READ: Third Covid wave on, Bengaluru leads spike
Similarly, though wedding halls are allowed a maximum of 100 to 200 people per function, many don’t see a point in operating at all. “Many people spend lakhs of money to have a wedding reception, with at least a thousand people. Restricting it to only around 200 people is unrealistic, since no one wants it to be a small affair,” said Ranjith Kumar, the owner of White House Convention Centre. He said that all bookings had been cancelled and refunds issued, with the same being the case for a lot of his fellow business owners. “Many people I know who own convention centres have closed down and started demolishing the halls, we’ve asked for some relief or leniency when it comes to bank loans or paying bills or tax relaxation, but we’ve had no such response,” he said.
Restaurants and other eateries have also faced huge losses over the last two years and have appealed to the government to allow 50% capacity over the weekends as a way to make up for lost revenue over New Year’s celebrations. “Business is down by almost 75%, it is somehow worse than it was last year even though the pandemic was still around,” said Madhukar M Shetty, secretary for the Karnataka State Hotel Association.
“We’ve had to issue a large number of refunds as well as face losses after having to cancel celebrations and events we had paid advances on,” he said, mentioning that business had been picking up for a few months but has dropped yet again. “We’ve appealed to the government to allow us to operate at 50% capacity over the weekends, because that’s where most revenue is generated, we have had no trouble with enforcing regulations and we are just as essential because we provide food,” he said.
Shiva Kumar, secretary of the Peenya Industries Association, said that industries were planning on working shift-wise as they had been directed to work at 50% capacity. “We’ve had an exemption from the lockdown, but there will still have to be cost-cutting measures and since workers are working shift-wise, they will have a decrease in pay. Production will also slow down which will incur a loss and we are facing a difficulty in transportation, since we are unsure about how movement will be handled,” he said.
“There hasn’t been a large effect on autos since there are many people requiring transportation around the city,” said Karthik Raja, an auto driver and facilitator for Bengaluru Guide Autos. Transport to and from the airport, railway stations and bus terminals has not been restricted.