BENGALURU : The cost of living in Karnataka is set to rise from Friday as traders and sellers across sectors, including restaurants, real estate, tourist taxis, and pharmaceuticals, have decided to ring in the new financial year with a substantial price hike due to rising input costs.
Eating out, especially in Bengaluru, will be dearer by at least 10% as hoteliers, reeling under skyrocketing prices of almost all commodities including edible oil, liquid petroleum gas (LPG), petrol and diesel, food grains, coffee and tea powder and vegetables, plan to pass on the hike to consumers.
PC Rao, president, Bruhat Bengaluru Hoteliers Association, said they expect the price of milk to be hiked by Rs 2 litre from next week and power tariff for commercial establishments is set to go up by Rs 2 per unit. Also, as per the government’s labour policy, all hoteliers must hike basic salaries of employees by at least Rs 500 from April.
“All these factors have added to the cost of production, which has risen from 10% to 15%,” Rao said. “We have no choice but to revise menu prices. The association will meet on April 4 to decide on the exact quantum of hike. ”
However, many hoteliers have already decided to hike food prices from April 1 and Rao said about 30% of the 25,000 restaurants in Bengaluru will introduce the new prices on Friday.
Raghavendra Padukone, owner of By2Coffee, a budget hotel chain, said, “The price of commodities has shot up. For instance, sunflower oil has gone up from Rs 150 per litre to Rs 190 and coffee powder has jumped from Rs 420 to Rs 480. But we will wait for the association’s decision before deciding on the quantum of the price hike in our hotels. ”
Bhaskar Nagendrappa, president, CREDAI-Bengaluru, said all developers have decided to hike prices of residential units in apartments from between 10% and 15% from Friday. “Cost of almost all construction mate- rial has gone up,” Nagendrappa. “Steel has gone up from Rs 40,000 per tonne to Rs 85,000, and cement from 270 to Rs 375 per bag. Unless the government takes urgent measures such as rationalisation of GST rates, the real estate sector is headed for a crisis. ”
Concurring with Nagendrappa, BT Manohar, a member of Karnataka State GST Advisory Council, said the council is expected to take a call on this soon.
“The group of ministers headed by Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai is looking into the issue of GST rate rationalisation,” said Manohar. “Prices are expected to come down as the number of rate slabs is expected to fall. ”
With the price of diesel rising by Rs 9 per litre in the past 10 days, the tourist taxi sector is facing a similar crisis. “The hike in fuel prices has come as a big blow at a time when the sector was just recovering from the Covid-induced slowdown. The state government can help by reducing sales tax on diesel,” said K Radhakrishna Holla, president, Karnataka State Travel Operators Association.
