On Monday, the Karnataka government announced that they will now and then provide approximately 20 percent of daily commercial LPG supply in the state to hotels and other commercial properties with the aim of alleviating the current shortage, which has been causing disturbance to the hospitality industry in the state over weeks.
According to State Food and Civil Supplies Minister KH Muniyappa, about 10000 commercial cylinders will be distributed every day to hotels, restaurants, industrial canteens and roadside dhabas after discussions with the oil marketing companies. The hospitality industry was using approximately 45,000 commercial cylinders per day as previously. Talking to oil marketing companies, it has been agreed to deliver approximately 10,000 cylinders every day to be used in hotels and restaurants. The decreased allocation will have to be adjusted by businesses, he said.
The existing supply of approximately 1,000 cylinders per day, as pointed out by Muniyappa, had been very insufficient and it was necessary to consider prolonged solutions like solar and biomass energy. He says that the central government has authorized an overall daily distribution of 16,105 commercial cylinders in Karnataka, 4, 200 of which is to be allocated to educational institutions, 1, 200 to the public sector undertakings, 500 to agriculture and other related sectors and 200 in emergencies.
The scarcity has been greatly attributed to world supply hiccups following the raging West Asia war. The loss goes off really high to the tune of approximately 150 crore in the last three weeks, according to reports made by hotels in Bengaluru itself. The situation has had a great impact on the daily operations where the shortage, which started in the early months of March, has made the hotel industry lose an estimated 50 crore per week with honorary president of the Bangalore Hotel Association, PC Rao, saying the situation. By this allocation, the government is hopeful that the supply will be stabilized in the meantime as long-term solutions are sought.
This action is the first step towards helping the hospitality industry in the hard times of limited commercial LPG supply.