Need chance to fight and not die silent death: NRAI

New Delhi, May 18 (IANSlife) The National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) said it is disappointed that Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman ignored the F&B sector while announcing the Rs 20 lakh crore stimulus package by the Centre.

"We are very sad and extremely disappointed that the Hon'ble Finance Minister chose to completely ignore this sector in these five days of announcements of stimulus package," Anurag Katriar, President of NRAI, said in a statement.

The sector employs nearly 7.30 million people and is the second largest employer of human capital in India after agriculture. As the F&B industry is a big consumer of farming products, this will certainly cause a long-term impact on the farming sector, he added.

"It will also hurt the farming sector for whom we are significant consumers... These are inevitable consequences because none of us have the resources to continue keeping ourselves afloat without the support from the government. It is also clear that we will perhaps be one of the last sectors to open up, which means we perhaps need maximum support to stay alive."

The NRAI also reiterated its primary demands which are:

Give us an option for Input tax credit on GST

Declare the pandemic as an incident of force majeure in line with the announcement made for the real estate sector

Better and equitable e-commerce policy to protect the interest of lakhs of small and large business as against protecting the interests of a handful of aggregators.



The industry body also urged the government to partially compensate wages for those employees who are covered under the ESIC act. It sought some working capital on easier terms and six month's moratoriums. This is also a loan and not a dole from the government, it said.

"We are an important sector and we once again request the Government to examine our requests closely and consider them favourably. We need support to stay alive and get some strong policy to fight post the lockdown. We need support so that we get a chance to fight and not die a silent death," Katriar urged.

On Saturday, the NRAI had announced its partnership with O2O commerce platform, Dotpe, to increase omni-channel sales, providing seamless B2B digital ordering solutions fully integrated with a payment gateway for its member restaurants and cloud kitchens.

NRAI members can avail these services at a low flat fee rather than a percentage based commission. Once the lockdown is lifted, the restaurants can use the Dotpe's QR based catalogue and e-commerce platform for digital ordering which ensures minimal human touch.

Post lockdown, NRAI and Dotpe's digital ordering solution will make the customers feel safe as it ensures minimal human touch while ordering and settling the bill. Guests can scan the QR code placed on the tables from their own mobile phones, and view the entire menu of the restaurant on the phone just like an e-commerce catalogue. Guests can order through the catalogue while remain seated and also make the payment through the phone. The order-related communication will further happen over guests' WhatsApp numbers.