The Centre has termed “unfair trade practice” the instances of luxury hotels charging exorbitant rates for serving bananas and boiled eggs.

Consumer Affairs Minister Ramvilas Paswan said the government was examining whether such services could be brought under the retail sales price or within the ambit of the newly enacted Consumer Protection Law.

For starters, Paswan said the ministry had decided to seek an explanation from the hotels — through the respective state governments — on the break-up of charges levied under different heads.

Consumer Affairs Secretary Avinash Kumar Srivastava dismissed suggestions that such questions to hotels would amount to harassment,

Actor Rahul Bose had triggered a Twitter storm a few weeks ago by posting photographs of a bill of a luxury hotel in Chandigarh that had charged him Rs 442 for two bananas. Reports from Mumbai on Sunday claimed that a luxury hotel had charged Rs 1,700 for serving two boiled eggs.