Cong protesters booked
The Bhoiwada police on Tuesday registered a case against the Youth Congress protestors under Sections 37 (preventing disorder) and 135 (violation of section 37) of the Bombay Police Act. Youth Congress leader Pratik Nakarte has been named as one of the accused in the FIR.
ACP Ramesh Poman said, “The YC members held a protest without informing the local police which is a violation of the BPA.”
According to restaurant-owners, multiple taxation by the UPA government has caused severe erosion in business, which has subsequently turned away even regular customers. The reaction is in response to the protest by Congress activists, who filed a non-cognisable offence against a Parel restaurant for mocking the government through a footnote in its bills.
According to Sashikant Shetty, general secretary of the Indian Hotels and Restaurants Association (AHAR), customers have been blaming hotel-owners for hiking prices. “We have to earn the ire of patrons who have been miffed with increased food bills, but the fact is that we are helpless. The bill paid by a customer is the sole source of revenue in a restaurant business and any increase in prices or taxes has to be recovered from the same. We don’t enjoy fleecing customers and are against rising taxes ourselves,” said Mr Shetty.
“Earlier, restaurant and eateries were exempt from service tax, but the 4.99 per cent has eaten into most of the revenue. This is an addition to the Value Added Tax (VAT) of 12.5 per cent on the total bill. We had also argued that restaurants are not food manufacturing units where the item is sold as a product, but the government looked at it otherwise,” added Mr Shetty.
Regarding the controversy surrounding Aditi Hotel, Mr Shetty said that the Bhoiwada police has registered a non-cognisable offence under Section 501 of the IPC and that the hotel had been re-opened. “The restaurant is now running after the protest,” he said. He, however, chose not to comment on the political turn taken by the issue. Senior PI Sunil Tondwalkar of the Bhoiwada police said, “We have registered an NC case and the hotel-owner has apologised and removed the footnote. A few men have been posted outside the restaurant to prevent any flare up,” he said. Aditi Hotel owner Srinivas Shetty was unavailable for comment.
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