Andhra Pradesh   

Hoteliers in a fix to revise prices

Inflation Impact: Hotel owner Raju has hiked the prices of most of the eatables.

SANGAREDDY: The Roti that used to accompany the meals at the Janapriya hotel here has disappeared, ‘putnala pappu’ has replaced groundnut in the chutney while the price of all food items that require cooking oil has gone by one to two rupees. All the big hotels in the district have revised the prices but the small time eateries are in a dilemma whether to go for the hike at the cost of numbers or to absorb the burden till the prices of essential commodities come down to a reasonable level.

Raju, owner of Janapriya Udipi hotel wants the government to do something about the prices. “There is no scarcity of food material, the big stockists in Hyderabad are holding the stocks,” he complained. Raju has hiked price of plate meals, vada and biryani by two rupees each. The restaurant section also tasted the inflation punch in the shape of expensive Basmati rice needed for the making of Biryani. “A quintal costs Rs. 10,000 now and we heard that all the superfine quality rice is being exported, skyrocketing the domestic prices,” he reasoned. Raju is not the only one to feel the pinch as labour shortage also has an impact on the hotel business. He employees 25 workers and each one is demanding better wages as their monthly budgets have gone haywire.

Owner of Nandini tiffin stall, Prabhakar specialises in fast fried food like the Mysore Bajji, Mirchi Bajji, Vada and Masala vada. He said that he did not hike the prices as his business is price sensitive. “If I change the price it would result in a dip in sales as my customers are mostly poor like painters, carpenters and autorickshaw drivers,” Prabhakar told The Hindu. But he uses more than 40 lt of ground nut oil in a single day. It affects his pocket badly as the prices of edible oils has almost doubled.

Saravan Singh of Balaji Prakash Sweet shop is facing similar problem. “Prices of besan, oil and sugar have gone up but all the Rajasthani sweet shop owners in the region have not decided on hiking the prices as the prices of sweets are already high,” he said.

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