Hard to digest: Restaurateurs dish out why they felt budget 2021 was not so appetising

Express News Service

Jasmeet Banga, Founder, Pirates of the Grill
No support to the hospitality industry ever and ever is very devastating. Industry is at its recovery stage and no reforms at all means no relief at all. Ours is the most affected industry and some reliefs could have been a recovery catalyst for the battered economy.

Priyank Sukhija, Director, First Fiddle restaurants
Its very disheartening that in this whole budget , the industries that were worst affected be it travel or be it hospitality have not even got the mentions yet again. This was the time when our industry needed the utmost support but sadly our industry just doesn’t exist for the Government. Seeing the number of Employees the industry has, I really don’t know when things will change for us. I am disheartened.

Kanishk Tuteja, Founder, We Qutub and Nukkad Cafe Bar
With zero foreign exchange earnings and less than 25 percent of prepandemic revenues, the hospitality sector is facing an existential crisis. The Hospitality and Tourism industry was looking forward to some relief measures to lift this most severely affected industry by COVID19. but it is completely ignored.

Manish Sharma, Owner, Viet:Nom
Hospitality and Tourism roughly account for 10 per cent of India’s Gross Domestic Product and employ nearly 9 per cent of India’s working population and yet, it failed to find space in the Union Budget. The industry has always contributed to the Govt in its best capacity but but we are surprised that the sector could not find even a mention in the FM’s budget.

Amit Bagga, Co-founder, Daryaganj
It’s very disappointing that the FM has ignored our industry yet again. The f and b industry has suffered huge losses because of the pandemic and is trying to recover and we had asked for a few reforms like reinstating the GST input which would have helped in promoting more investments and would have helped us save costs every month. Pre covid we employed 7 million people and post covid the number would be down by at least 30 PC and these reforms can help get employment back for the ones who have lost their jobs.

Akshay Anand, Co-founder, Ophelia
The restaurant trade is one of the highest tax revenue generating trade and it’s somewhat sad to see that it has not been addressed in this budget. I highly appreciate the government’s plans to improve the infrastructure and cleanliness/ sanitation, which in turn will increase the tourist inflow once the pandemic eases down. I am also very happy to see the big chunk for the medical sector facilities. I would humbly urge the honourable finance minister to look into the development of the hotel and restaurant industry in India.