Mumbai hotels and restaurants are facing potential closures due to a critical shortage of commercial LPG cylinders, with similar disruptions reported across India. The crisis stems from revised government priorities for domestically produced natural gas, impacting the hospitality sector and potentially affecting tourism.
Indian restaurants are grappling with a severe LPG shortage due to the West Asia conflict, forcing them to innovate with menus and cooking methods or face potential closures, impacting the food industry and consumers across the country.
'This is not a case of tax evasion but the result of long-standing ambiguities in GST rules and unawareness.'
Dining today isn't just about food -- it's about the experience and the story.
The court upheld the guidelines and imposed Rs 1 lakh cost each on the petitioners to be deposited with the CCPA towards consumer welfare.
The restaurant chains are riding the Hallyu wave -- a phenomenon about the growing global prominence of South Korean pop culture.
A Competition Commission probe has found that food delivery platforms Zomato and Swiggy indulged in unfair business practices, including alleged preferential treatment to some restaurant partners, according to sources. The detailed investigation was ordered by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) in April 2022 and the probe report was submitted to the regulator earlier this year. Under the norms, CCI director general's report has been shared with the parties concerned and later, they will be called for hearings by the watchdog.
Indian food services sector is expected to grow at a CAGR (compounded annual growth rate) of 8.1 per cent between 2024 and 2028 on the back of rapid urbanisation, robust GDP growth, a rising younger population, and greater exposure among consumers, said a new report. The India Food Services Report-2024, brought out by the National Restaurants Association of India (NRAI), states that the sector contributes 1.9 per cent to India's GDP and is projected to grow to Rs 7.76 trillion by 2028 from Rs 5.69 trillion currently.
In the first quarter (Q1) of the ongoing financial year ending June 30, Westlife Foodworld, which operates McDonald's outlets in the South and West, reported an 88 per cent drop in net profit. While net sales remained flat, its same-store sales growth (SSSG) fell by 6.7 per cent, impacted by "subdued in-store business, although the off-premise segment saw positive same-store sales", the company said.
'As the city grows, so do its fire incidents.'
The Delhi high court on Wednesday stayed the recent guidelines prohibiting hotels and restaurants from levying service charge automatically on food bills. Justice Yashwant Varma, while dealing with petitions by the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) and Federation of Hotels and Restaurant Associations of India challenging the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA)'s July 4 guidelines, said the issue requires consideration and directed the authorities to file their reply. "The matter requires consideration. Consequently, until the next date of listing the directions as contained in para 7 of the impugned guideline of July 4, 2022 shall remain stayed," the court ordered.
The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) on Tuesday stayed a Rs 169 crore penalty imposed on Oravel Stays Ltd by the competition commission of India (CCI). Oravel Stays Ltd operates under the brand name Oyo. However, a two-member NCLAT bench while admitting the appeal filed by Oravel Stays Ltd (OSL) directed to deposit of 10 per cent of the penalty amount within six weeks.
IPO-bound hospitality major OYO has written to the Ministry of Tourism (MoT) requesting it to intervene and investigate the running of the Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI) and order eviction of erring executive committee members. The hotel aggregator urged the MoT to take necessary action against FHRAI's "illegally run" Executive Committee and its members who are working for self-interest instead of that of small hotel owners. The representation by OYO alleged that FHRAI's actions are detrimental to small hotel owners.
The National Restaurant Association of India has written an advisory to its members against Zomato Pay and Swiggy Diner discount programmes saying these are against the interest of restaurant owners. The advisory alleges that 'middlemen' Zomato and Swiggy are making money at the cost of restaurants, who sign up to be on the Zomato Pay and Swiggy Diner programmes by making them compulsorily offer discounts and also pay commission fee on every transaction on these platforms. "Zomato Pay and Swiggy Diner both operate broadly on the same construct -- no cost/subscription fee to the customer to participate; restaurants must compulsorily offer a discount in the range of 15-40 per cent to be part of the program," NRAI wrote to its members.
Competition Commission on Monday ordered a detailed probe against food delivery platforms, Zomato and Swiggy, for alleged unfair business practices with respect to their dealings with restaurant partners. The order has come on a complaint filed by the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI). The watchdog's probe arm -- Director General (DG) -- will investigate the case.
A Siliguri-based hotelier has challenged a National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) ruling that closed insolvency proceedings against OYO and one of its units, in the Supreme Court. The hearing is scheduled for September 13 before a two-judge Bench. Oyo did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
It is the season of cooking and baking, but with Amul Butter in short supply, consumers aren't like the cat that got the cream. A shortage only means market shelves without butter on them. "There is a supply-side deficit. "We are now able to procure only two packs of butter a day, as opposed to three packs (each containing 30 packets of butter) in a day," says a salesman at Modern Bazaar, a departmental store in New Delhi's Greater Kailash.
The domestic hospitality industry is looking to 'fly' in 2023 cashing in on India's G20 presidency, having received the 'oxygen' to run in 2022 after being crippled in the past two years by the pandemic. Domestic travel, especially the leisure segment, gave wind to the industry this year and is expected to continue into the next. Industry players believe that as international arrivals are also likely to pick up even further, the outlook for 2023 is buoyant.
The hospitality and tourism sector is among the worst hit because of the pandemic, and is unlikely to recover any time soon as people continue to be cautious of going out in a crowded places.
When the sun rises in 2022, the Indian hospitality industry will be waking up with prayers for survival, desperately looking forward to some form of support from the government as revival from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic of the last two years will be an arduous journey. Just as the industry was beginning to see a flickering light at the end of a long tunnel towards the end of 2021, the spread of the Omicron variant of coronavirus and subsequent extension of suspension of scheduled international passenger flights till January 31, 2022, has come as a dampener to those who were looking to have some business in the winter season. With inbound tourist arrivals unlikely amidst the pandemic, the industry wants the government to incentivise domestic travels with income tax benefits for a limited period so as to help the hospitality and tourism sector get up again by tapping the pent up demand for holidays, within the country.
The government on Monday asked online food business operators like Swiggy and Zomato to submit a proposal within 15 days on improving their consumer grievance redressal mechanism amid rising complaints from customers. The department of consumer affairs directed e-commerce FBOs "to transparently show consumers the breakup of all charges included in the order amount such as delivery charges, packaging charges, taxes, surge pricing etc." According to an official statement, "The Department of Consumer Affairs has directed major e-commerce Food Business Operators (FBOs) to furnish the current framework as well as a proposal on improving the consumer grievance redressal mechanism within 15 days."
Alleging "anti-competitive practices" by Zomato and Swiggy, restaurant industry body National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) on Monday said it has approached fair trade regulator Competition Commission of India (CCI) for a detailed probe against the food aggregators. Keeping the interests of restaurants in mind, NRAI on July 1 had filed information with the CCI, it said in a statement. The main issues highlighted by the association in the submission are bundling of services, data masking, and exorbitant commission charged, price parity agreements, deep discounting, including forcing restaurant partners to give discounts to maintain appropriate listing, exclusivity of listed restaurants, and violation of platform neutrality, vertical integration, and lack of transparency on the food ordering platforms.
Amid rising consumer complaints, the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) on Monday barred hotels and restaurants from levying service charge automatically or by default in food bills and allowed customers to file complaints in case of violation. The CCPA has issued guidelines for preventing unfair trade practices and violation of consumer rights with regard to levying of service charge. "No hotels or restaurants shall add service charge automatically or by default in the bill," CCPA chief commissioner said in the guideline.
"It went up to 20-odd per cent in 2019 and to 25 per cent a year later. "That's when we decided to pull the plug; it was not sustainable for our business," says Chadha. Madison & Pike, instead, turned to Mumbai-based start-up Thrive, which provides third-party delivery services to restaurants at a much lower commission - three to five per cent.
The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) on Wednesday closed insolvency proceedings against Oyo and one of its subsidiaries, and also disallowed the intervention of external parties including Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI). Industry body FHRAI said in May it has been allowed by the NCLAT to intervene on behalf of hotels in the Oyo unit insolvency case before the tribunal. The association had filed the application on behalf of its member hotels in India, who it said at the time are operational creditors suffering hugely on account of non-payments of debt by Oyo.
Zomato said late on Friday that it was pushing the implementation of the new food quality policy to May 3 from April 18.
Food delivery apps Zomato and Swiggy reported a nationwide outage on Wednesday. Both the platforms witnessed technical glitches and were unresponsive for almost an hour. Downdetector, a platform that collects status reports from a series of sources, recorded about 3,619 reports of outage against Zomato at 2:05 PM and about 771 reports of outage against Swiggy at around 2:21 PM. According to the sources, the outage was caused by Amazon Web Services (AWS), a cloud-services platform, which runs both platforms. Though Swiggy and Zomato are working now, some customers reported that the issue has not been solved completely and they are not able to place orders and there are payment related issues.
'We are not organising any large celebrations on New Year's Eve to avoid last-minute changes in guidelines.'
Miffed hotels, restaurants stare at huge losses on account of advance planning for events that they now have to shelve.
Security around high streets in the national capital, such as Connaught Place and Khan Market, has been stepped up following the 16-hour hostage crisis at Sydney's Lindt Chocolate Caf earlier this week. The terrorist attack on a Peshawar school, killing nearly 145, has intensified the checks at many restaurants, cafes and popular hangouts.
'The government is not ready to talk to us. They have their own agenda.'
'We were taking the Starbucks experience from the store to the home.'
The country aims to attract one percent of the global tourist arrivals by the end of 12th Five Year Plan (2012-2017) from the current 0.58 percent, Union Tourism Minister Subodh Kant Sahai has said.
FMCG analysts say inflationary pressure forcing consumers to stinge on non-core products.
In this interesting case filed by the petitioner against the Taj Hotels, the National Commission gave an equally interesting judgment.
Zomato and Swiggy
'This is almost like demonetisation and is overwhelming,' says a bar-owner.
"There are complaints and reports in social media and media about overcharging by some five-star hotels for items like bananas and eggs. This is a serious and unfortunate matter," Paswan told reporters in New Delhi.
The Federation of Hotels and Restaurants Association of India has made a presentation to the government, requesting certain tax exemptions.
Since April, India has seen multiple strains of the coronanavirus sweep the nation, upending life and businesses alike. Out-of-home retail and discretionary categories such as durables, auto, fashion, lifestyle, hospitality, food services, travel, and tourism have been the worst-hit as Covid cases remain high, leaving state governments with no option but to curtail mobility and economic activity.
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