Guesthouse and hotel owners in New Delhi have decided to hike their charges by 10% due to recent 21.77% hike in power tariffs. The association of hotel owners, called the Hotel Mahasangh, claims that the hike will lead to a rise in their overall running cost. It also says that their electricity bills run into lakhs of rupees. We are already paying increased property tax and conversion charges to the civic bodies, the association said. 

“We were expecting a rollback of the present tariffs but we have been hugely disappointed. The government had said that as power theft had been controlled, it would consider lowering the present tariffs. If our electricity bills will go up by about 22%, we will have no choice but to recover it partially from the people,” said Arun Gupta, general secretary of Hotel Mahasangh.

An average charge of a room will increase from the present Rs.3,000 to Rs.3,300 per day if the 10% hike comes into effect. According to the association, they had invested a lot of money in revamping their guesthouses and hotels for CWG. The latest rise in power tariff will increase their running costs.

“We are now being burdened by rising power bills. This is not acceptable and we have decided unanimously that we will increase the guesthouse tariff by 10%,” Gupta added.

However, Hotel Mahasangh is also planning to write to Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit, asking her for a rollback. “We will be meeting the chief minister over this issue and make this demand,” said another guesthouse owner.