This has put restaurant owners in a predicament and they say they are not sure for long they can sustain losses as the situation shows no sign of improvement.

Bangladesh entered lockdown mode from March 26 to prevent the spread of coronavirus, shutting down all non-essential services, transport and asking people to stay indoors.

And that is causing the restaurant business to bleed. Stakeholders said they are going through a difficult time and are worried about meeting monthly costs including rents, utility bills and salaries of staff.

Many upscale restaurants are also incurring significant revenue loss as foreign visitors cancelled their tours amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Also Read: Corona fallout spells disaster for millions of poor Bangladeshis: Economists

A number of restaurant owners told UNB that they keep their eateries open for several hours daily and but the lack of customers was hurting businesses.

Besides, people’s increasing tendency to order food online was also behind the slump in number of customers.

Shafiqul Islam, a proprietor of Café Haji Biryani hotel at Najirabazar, said their business is on the wane.

“We keep our hotel open following the government’s directive but we’re not getting enough customers as many have left Dhaka or stay home. We’re worried about pay hotel and house rents, gas, electricity bills and staff salaries. We’re going through a difficult time now,” he added.

Shafiqul said every year they have buoyant sale in Ramadan but he is not sure what will happen this year.

Mizanur Rahman, owner of Bangla Hotel & Restaurant at Motijheel, said he has several restaurants and each of them employ around 40 workers.

“There’re around 30,000 small and big restaurants in the country. Of them, more than 8,000 are in Dhaka. Around one million workers are engaged in this sector. But we’re all at risk now due to the COVID-19,” the office secretary of Bangladesh Restaurant Owners Association (BROA) said.

Also read: Corona closure leaves thousands of hotel workers jobless

Mizanur said the government should help the restaurant sector survive.

Forkan Mia, a hotel staffer, said he is worried about his job. “After the government announced holiday in March, our hotel owner asked me to go home. We work on daily basis. If the sale is poor, how’ll the owners pay our salaries? So, most of the workers returned to their villages. We don’t know when we can go back and we’re now in deep financial trouble,” he said.

Another restaurant worker, Md Sumon Islam, said he worked for an upscale restaurant in Gulshan for years.

“I never faced such a situation before. Now it’s hard for me to arrange food for my family as I can’t attend work,” he added.

Talking to UNB, General Secretary of Bangladesh Hotel Restaurant and Sweetmeat Workers Federation Anwar Hossain said there are around 10,000 hotels and restaurants in the capital where around 200,000 waiters, chefs, cooks, servers and bread makers work.

“Most waiters depend on tips from customers. Without job, they’re now passing through a very difficult time,” he said.

Anwar said some workers returned to their villages before the closure of the public transport while many of them are now stuck in the capital with their families.

Also read: Govt declares 10-day general holiday from March 26

“We urge the government to introduce food rationing system for the workers and announce a grant so that this huge number of low-income workers can survive,” he said.

Proprietor of Star Kabab at Dhanmondi Meer Akter Uddin Dulal told UNB they are facing a very tough situation. “We can’t afford to keep our restaurant open full time,” he added.

The vice president of BROA said they open their restaurant from 12pm to 7pm. “We’ve to count huge loss daily,” he said. 

General Secretary of Federation of Hotel, Guests Houses, and Restaurant Owners Association SM Alauddin Mahmud told UNB that they are facing uncertainty.

“Many workers will be laid off due to the circumstance,” he said.

Mahmud said more than 70 residential hotels in their association covered only Gulshan, Banani, Badda and Uttara areas of the capital. They all were going through difficult time.

He said the government will lose around Tk 7,900 crore in revenue this year from tourism sector. “Around 10,000 workers can be laid off within June,” he said.

Executive Director of the Policy Research Institute of Bangladesh (PRI) Dr Ahsan H Mansur told UNB that an unemployment situation will be awful in near future in the country.

“Around 2.5 million people are involved in only service sector like hotel, restaurant and resorts. Besides, around 8 million are involved in small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) sector and around 4.5 million in RGM. Their jobs are at risk following COVID-19 outbreak,” he added.