BENGALURU: The Bruhat Bangalore Hotel Association (BBHA) has written to the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, seeking the withdrawal of the orders made on cancelling discounted prices of commercial LPG, attributing it to a massive loss to the hotel industry.
With regard to the cancellation of discounted prices, Hindustan Petroleum said it received complaints that in a few markets, commercial LPG was being sold at cheaper rates compared with the price of domestic LPG. Hence, they believed it was ideal to streamline the discounts on the cost of non-domestic LPG.
Subramanya Holla HS, vice-president of the hotel association, said that it was not possible that the cost of commercial LPG was lesser, and that he was not aware as to why the ministry had revoked the discount. “The maximum discount we would get is around Rs 200 per cylinder, which is a small cost,” he said, however, adding that if it is considered on annual basis, especially at a time of high inflation and prices of all commodities are rising, it is considerable. Prices of milk, pulses and even ghee rose this year, Holla said, adding that eventually, consumers will have to bear the brunt of such steps, since the hoteliers will end up increasing costs as they have to keep their businesses running.
Murthy, a supervisor at Vidya Cafe in Bengaluru, said that their customers were complaining about high prices. However, he explained that raw materials had become expensive and they also had to bear overhead costs, in the form of paying rents, salaries etc, owing to which they had to increase costs in order to sustain themselves. National oil marketing companies, namely Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum withdrew discounts on commercial LPG with effect from November 8.
The hotel association notified that the commercial LPG was largely used by the hotel industry, as the discount offered was on bulk orders through distributors. They also said that the GST on commercial LPG was 18 per cent, and only 5 per cent for domestic. Both should be equal, they suggested.