The Bruhat Bengaluru Hoteliers Association (BBHA) on Friday wrote a letter to the Election Officer to reconsider the four-day ban on liquor between February 14 and February 20 on account of Teachers’ Constituency by-election. With the dry days coinciding with Valentine’s Day on February 14, hoteliers said that they will face losses as they have already made all the preparations.
A temporary ban on sale of liquor has been imposed from 5 p.m. on February 14 to midnight 12 a.m. on February 16 and from 6 a.m. to 12 a.m. on February 20.
“Four days of closure will result in loss of business to the tune of over ₹450 crore. The government will also lose about ₹240 crore in excise duty. The license fee for those four days will lead to losses of about ₹12,000 per licensee. This will also cause trouble to manage other costs like rent, salaries,” said P.C. Rao, president, BBHA, in the letter.
He added, “The decision to ban liquor sale for four days for the sake of election in one constituency where there are a mere 16,000 votes should be reconsidered for these reasons.”
