Coronavirus has hit industries badly and businesses will take time to get back to normal once the outbreak is brought under control. Indian restaurant industry is likely to have an extremely difficult time in the months to come with public by and large likely to shun having food in restaurants.
The Indian restaurant industry employs around 7 million people and many of them come from marginal sections that now have to fight for their daily survival and bear the consequences of the nation-wide shutdown. It has been now two weeks since bars, restaurants, pubs, clubs, etc. have been shut down as per government orders. The closure of these businesses has brought uncertainties to the workers employed in these establishments.
Unlike other industries there is no scope for “work from home” for these establishments and the shutdown has frozen the income flow bringing a huge challenge for the employers to manage the salaries of the staff.
The eight-point structural and regulatory relief package announced by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman to mitigate the economic fallout of coronavirus will help employers to perhaps pay March salaries. However, the lockdown now being prolonged to mid-April as per Prime Minister’s directive, the industry is a worried lot on getting paid for April salaries.
Speaking to the media, Anurag Katriar, President of National Restaurant Association of India and Executive Director and CEO of deGustibus Hospitality, said, “It is a matter of survival right now. I don't know how many companies will survive after all this is over. I don't know how we will be coping up. But I'm looking at it with a humane angle and not commercial. Most companies have made arrangements for paying salaries of March, but I don't know how we'll do April.”
Many job losses are likely to occur, it is a big crisis and can be solved only through intervention of the government, financial institutions and the industry itself.
