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Prayagraj hotels, restaurants hike food prices, courtesy rising fuel costs
Due to the increase in PNG commercial rate, hotels and restaurants have been left with no other option but to increase the rate of food items, says Harjinder Singh, district president of hotels and restaurants, Prayagraj
Cost of dishes being served in hotels and restaurants of Sangam city has increased by around 15 percent due to the hike in rates of commercial cylinders and piped natural gas (PNG) from April 1. Apart from this, the price of CNG that has gone up by ₹6.60 per kg too has impacted the cost.
On top of this all, the prices of diesel and petrol have increased making freight expensive. During the last nine days, there has been a continuous increase in prices of diesel and petrol. From Friday midnight, the rate of plain petrol in Prayagraj reached ₹101.73 per litre while diesel was selling at ₹93.31 per litre even as petrol was selling at a cost of ₹102.53 per litre and diesel at a cost of ₹94.11 per litres in Sangam city on Saturday.
On the other hand, after March 23 the prices of domestic LPG cylinders have not increased and at present the price of domestic cylinder is ₹1002. This is in stark contrast to five years ago when the price of domestic cylinder was around just ₹735. Likewise, the cost of a commercial cylinder was ₹1,365 five years back but at present its price has reached ₹2,383.50.
Similarly, rate of CNG in 2017 was ₹51.50 (per kg) which increased to ₹60 in 2020 and is now selling for ₹82 per kg. There are 17 CNG pumps in the district and around 50 hotels in the city have PNG connections. Till March 31, domestic consumers used to get PNG at the rate of ₹43.42 per standard cubic metre (SCM) but which has now increased to ₹50 per SCM. The rate of PNG in hotels has increased from ₹82.80 per SCM to ₹90 during the same period. Similarly, earlier the rate of PNG in industries was ₹61.20 per SCM but which has now increased to ₹66 per SCM.
“Due to the increase in PNG commercial rate, hotels and restaurants have been left with no other option but to increase the rate of food items which therefore have become expensive”, said Harjinder Singh, district president of hotels and restaurants, Prayagraj.
Rakesh Rai, proprietor of a restaurant in Civil Lines, said due to the continuous increase in the rates of commercial cylinders and PNG, the dishes had become expensive. Food will become costlier by about 10 per cent. He is also apprehensive that there may be decline in numbers of customers if the rate is increased any further.
District president of Prayagraj Udyog Vyapar Mandal Mohd Qadir said the freight charges have doubled due to fuel price hike. Earlier, the cost of bringing goods in the city from Kanyakumari used to be around ₹80,000, which has now increased to around ₹2 lakh. He said due to the increase in the rate of diesel, the auto drivers were charging double the fare from passengers.
