KOCHI: The business was going in full steam for owners of Moopan’s Restaurant at Thellakom in Kottayam when Covid outbreak brought it to a grinding halt. The family enterprise had gained a large clientele since its launch four-and-a-half-years ago. “The past year-and-a-half have been a disappointment. With zero dine-in, we have barely 25% of our pre-Covid business now. On some days, it’s even less,” said Tony James, partner and manager.
According to Tony, the one relief is that the restaurant operates from the family’s own space. “We don’t have to pay the rent. But we do have other expenses like the salary of the staff and looking after their families,” he added. “The door delivery service has not worked. We opted out of a tie-up with Swiggy and Zomato since they charge 35% in commission,” he said. In Kochi, Nazeer K A, owner of Tiffin Box opened at Kaloor in 2017, has become bankrupt.
“However, since March 2020, the business has come down to just 10% or even lower,” said Nazeer. Right now, Nazeer and his partner are operating the eatery on their own. “I had to let go of all five employees since I was unable to pay their salaries,” Nazeer said.
This is the case with almost all hotels and restaurants across the state and also wayside makeshift eateries or ‘thattukadas’, which are not allowed to open in the lockdown. “Everyday, we are incurring a loss of around Rs 100 crore,” said G Jayapal, general secretary, Kerala Hotel and Restaurant Association (KHRA). According to him, since the start of the pandemic, the restrictions imposed by the government have been exceptionally hard on the industry. “After the national lockdown, business was picking up and had achieved a semblance of normalcy, when the second wave hit. It has broken the back of the industry,” he added.
While the government has come to the aid of other industries, the hotel sector has received no attention or aid, Jayapal said. According to him, the establishments that have been hit the hardest are the ones offering traditional food items. “Nearly 30 per cent of such restaurants have downed their shutters forever,” he said.
Thattukadas vanish
As per a survey carried out by the state Department of Economics and Statistics in 2015, 11,033 thattukadas operated in the state employing 17,584 people. The number went up exponentially in the later years, thanks to the growing night-out culture among IT sector employees. It was the livelihood of many an unemployed youth. But Covid has forced them all into penury.
Solutions suggested
Because of the commission issues with the delivery apps like Swiggy and Zomato, KHRA has come up with its own app — Rezoy. “It was launched two weeks ago in Ernakulam. We have our delivery boys and charge 10% extra for door delivery,” said Jayapal. “Though we are basically into production, we have been classified as a service industry by the Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises Department and have to pay 5 per cent GST when the same for merchants who have chosen composition fee is 1%. We pay the composition fee from our pockets so that we don’t burden our customers. This especially affects small restaurants,” he said.