Hotels and Restaurants in Kerala calls for 24 hour bandh protesting GST related anomalies

New Delhi, Apr 9 (KNN) The hotels and restaurants in Thiruvananthapuram have called for a 24 hour shutdown protesting against the anomies with the Goods and Services Tax (GST) on the sector, Kerala Hotel and Restaurant Association District Committee informed.

Talking to KNN, Sudhiesh Kumar informed that the shutdown is underway and there will be a protest march taking place too.

The march is to be taken out from Martyrs’ Column to the GST Bhavan to protest against the new taxation under which the demands of the sector till date haven’t been taken into consideration.

“Earlier hotels used to pay 0.5 per cent tax but with the coming of new taxation in the country, it has gone up to 18 per cent for air conditioned and 12 per cent for non-air conditioned hotels making it difficult to do business”, the association said.

However with the earlier protests the GST council was pressurized to bring it down to 5 per cent in November which still continues to impact the business ecosystem.

“The increased tax are forcing the hotels to pass on the cost to customer or to close down, which is going to prove to be fatal for the sector”, Kumar added. (KNN/DA)