Mumbai: Restaurants in Mumbai will switch off exterior lights every Monday and Thursday starting this week for a month to protest hike in electricity tariffs.
"We have only two ways to deal with the rising electricity tariff - either we protest and the government considers our problem or we pass the burden on to consumers," Indian Hotel and Restaurant Association (AHAR) President Chandrahaas Shetty said.
The Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission had recently hiked tariffs for commercial establishments.
"We are protesting against increase in tariffs and taking legal recourse, but if we fail, the consumer will have to bear the final consequences," Shetty said.
"If only inflation was to be considered, the customer would be burdened with about 10-15 per cent increase in prices. But prices of restaurant items may now go up by 15-20 per cent with the increased electricity tariffs," an AHAR member, Pradeep Jain, said.
Jain said that prices of items are raised, that too gradually, only when seasonal increases in commodity prices sustain for a longer time.
"However, with 65-95 per cent increase in power tariffs for commercial establishments, we will have to pass on the burden to the consumer sooner than later," he said.
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