The National Restaurants Association of India has sent out an advisory to shut down restaurant operations starting Wednesday till March 31 in the wake of worsening COVID-19 situation.
"In view of the serious health risk to lakhs of employees and millions of patrons in the food service sector, we had to take this decision," NRAI said.
In a press statement, it said: "We find ourselves today in an unprecedented situation where we are compelled to make some difficult decisions which have massive financial implications on our businesses but we are doing this in the larger benefit for our teams, our guests and our communities."
It also pointed out that most of the employees use public transport to commute and they run a huge risk of getting infected and further becoming carriers of the deadly virus.
"Hence, in order to avoid any such risk, we advise all our members to shut down their operations and help curtail the spread of the deadly virus. We are also trying our best to ensure the well-being of our employees while they remain confined to their homes," the NRAI stated.
"The NRAI intends to work with all stakeholders in the ecosystem; from landlords to various departments of the government, banks and financial institutions and seek their support in mitigating our losses as far as possible."
"This is an extraordinary situation and beyond our control and we expect support such as converting fixed rentals to variable revenue share, allowing input tax credit on GST, moratorium on loan repayment, waiver of interest, reduction on energy costs, deferred payment of license fee and taxes will go a long way in curtailing our astronomical losses," the statement said.
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