The Rs 933 hike in commercial LPG prices has come as a shocker for both small eateries and prominent restaurants with owners in Mumbai mulling a five to 20% hike in prices of menu items, and at least one of them expressing fears that the move would result in closures and job losses.“Nobody expected Rs 993,” said Pranav Rungta, Vice President of the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI). “This is the highest ever increase. It is unfortunate, but nothing can be done about it — it is all tied to the geopolitical situation. The government is absorbing the cost attached to domestic supply and passing it down to commercial establishments.”The hike has come as a double whammy for restaurants still navigating the aftershocks of a cylinder shortage that had already forced shortened menus and alternative fuels. “It’s a new shock every day,” said Kaustubh Tambe of Aram Vada Pav, CSMT, who runs his kitchen on a mix of induction and gas. At 2.25 cylinders a day, the new pricing translates to roughly Rs 70,000 in additional monthly expense, he said. He had already increased his prices last week: Vada pav from Rs 25 to Rs 30, thalipeeth from Rs 90 to Rs 100. “Can’t keep increasing the price again and again,” he said.Ankit Gupta of Burma Burma, which runs around 15 restaurants across Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, and Hyderabad, said he needs 350 cylinders a month across five of the outlets while the rest operate on LPG or PNG pipelines. At Rs 1,000 more per cylinder, his company would have to bear an additional cost of Rs 3.5 lakh a month, or roughly Rs 42 lakh a year. “That is a significant cost,” he said. “When gas prices increase, the whole ecosystem moves with it — packaging, stoneware, ceramics. We are also dealing with a labour shortage. Everything adds up.”Burma Burma did a marginal price increase in April and is holding for now. “We do not want the price to become a deterrent for people coming to us,” said Gupta.For Vijay Shetty, president of the Indian Hotel & Restaurant Association (AHAR) and owner of Udupi Shree Krishna in Lower Parel, patience has run out. “When it (cylinder price) rose from Rs 1,800 to Rs 2,000, we absorbed it without much fuss. But this is not possible to absorb,” said Shetty who is looking at a minimum 20% hike on his menu.Shetty said the latest LPG price hike will further strain margins and make operations increasingly unsustainable, adding it could accelerate closures and job losses.Story continues below this adAt 108-year-old Olympia Coffee House in Colaba, third-generation custodian Amir Choudhary said, “We will have to increase the prices; every dish will see a 5 to 10% hike.”At Bandra’s 88-year-old Lucky Restaurant, which had partially switched to coal to manage the ongoing shortage, owner S Mohsen said he would have to increase prices by 5 to 7%. “The timing makes it worse. It is summer, and the staff are already keen to head home. A few members have even left. The others are complaining about having to work with coal,” he said.In Bengaluru, Arun Adiga, managing partner at Vidyarthi Bhavan, said, “Bigger players can sustain this, but for smaller ones it is very difficult.” He has personally invested significantly to switch to induction and electric cooking, cutting his LPG usage by one to two cylinders a day. “But not everybody has that convenience.”Tambe, for now, is hoping the government moves faster with PNG connections.Story continues below this ad“The impact extends beyond individual businesses. Rising fuel costs inevitably affect employment, food pricing, events and banqueting operations, tourism-linked services and the broader supply chain connected to hospitality,” said Shetty.Urging the government to roll back the hike, he said, “A 10 to 15% hike in menu prices is imminent. But even that may not be enough to absorb the impact…Without immediate relief, the hospitality industry, a key employment generator, faces an existential crisis.”