Shoestring budget businesses in the catering and food industry that cater to a high volume of consumers from the lowest economic strata of society are the worst hit in the past four months due to a steep rise in the price of commercial Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) cylinders.
Ranganayakulu Tea Baddi (tea kiosk) that doubles as a breakfast catering centre at Rachanapalli on the outskirts of Anantapur city used to be jam-packed in the pre-COVID-19 days from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. with a large number of skilled and unskilled labourers staying in the colonies on the Anantapur-Ballary Highway making it their pit stop before heading for work in the city.
“If COVID-19 hit a big blow, with our daily business coming down from ₹1,800 a day to ₹800 a day in June/July this year, the sharp rise in commercial gas price, which is a major input for our business, has hit hard at our profits,” described Konanki Ranganayukulu eagerly waiting for the customers.
At a time when business was looking up, the rise in cost of groceries, palm oil, tea and coffee capped by the rise in LPG price, the small-time businessman is in a dilemma whether to increase the price of coffee, tea, poori and dosa to cover the losses at the risk of losing customers.
From an income of ₹800 a day post the second wave of COVID-19, his business improved to ₹1,500 a day now, but the cost of LPG cylinders which was ₹1,805 in August, rose to ₹1,880 on September 1 and before the current month’s steep hike of ₹226 per cylinder, it was ₹1,915 and today it is ₹2,140, resulting in an increase of ₹335 per cylinder since Independence Day.
Daily labourers prefer to eat at his kiosk as he sells tea at ₹5 a cup, dosa, poori or bajji at ₹10 per plate and coffee at ₹8 a cup. These prices are one-third of the average cost in Anantapur city. Ranganyukulu hopes for a turnaround and says the prices of petrol and diesel have been reduced, so probably LPG prices would also be reduced by this month-end.
