Hotels across Tamil Nadu would remain shut on Monday as part of protest against government’s move to impose tax causing additional burden to hoteliers, Chennai Hotels Association, president, K.T. Srinivasa Raja said today.
“While hotels were already paying VAT ranging from two to 14 per cent, the introduction of Service Tax of 12.36 per cent in the budget presented by finance minister P. Chidambaram was a double taxation causing additional burden,” he told reporters here.
“About 15,000 hotels and restaurants” would join the protest on that day, he claimed. Asked whether hotels and restaurants would be closed in Northern parts of the country, as part of the strike call given by their counterparts in Tamil Nadu, Hotel and Restaurant Association of Northern India, president, Garish Oberoi told PTI hotels would not be closed but employees would wear black badges as a mark of protest.
“What we are planning is not to shut down our hotels. All employees across hotels in Northern India including those in New Delhi, as part of expressing our solidarity with members in South, will wear black badges on Monday..”, he said.