Mumbai: Short on staff, just 20% eateries may reopen

MUMBAI: Not more than 20% restaurants would be able to reopen for business, primarily due to staff shortage, high rents and taxes, say city restaurateurs. Migrants, who comprised more than 80% of their staff, are yet to return.
“We don’t have enough people. Not more than 3,000 of the 15,000 standalone restaurants and eateries in the city will be able to resume as initially, we will be able to get only 10 to 15% of our staff,” said AHAR president Shivanand Shetty.“We want the government to announce encouraging policies for migrants,” added Shetty.
“We should be allowed at least 50% occupancy to start with (and not 33% as is expected) so that we can gradually achieve our feasibility targets. No eatery can break even unless it gets 80% of its business back on track,” said AHAR general secretary Sukesh Shetty.
For any standalone restaurant, a minimum of 15% margin is necessary to meet expenses such as staff salary, rent and taxes. “A majority of standalone restaurants may not be in a position to get the staff. They may also not reopen if housed in expensive rented spaces. Some of them may not be able to follow SOP due to space constraints,” said a restaurateur.
Meanwhile, Riyaz Amlani, trustee of National Restaurants Association of India (NRAI), which mostly has quick service restaurant (QSR) and cafe-dessert chains as members, said even if 50% of them restart business, “we doubt if most of them will be able to survive with a cap of 33% occupancy as overheads will be very high and time constraints may curtail businesses further. Mumbai region has nearly 3,500 such chain establishments and more than 25,000 across Maharashtra.”
Other than ensuring masks for all, gloves for staff, sterilization of utensils, frequent sanitization, thermal and oxygen checks of people and staff will be important tasks, said a restaurateur from Chembur.
Restaurateurs have requested waiver of taxes and licence fees during the lockdown for establishments operating out of expensive rented premises. “It will be an injustice if they are charged taxes,” said one.