Hotels in South India have decided to observe a day’s bandh on May 30 in protest against the high GST rates imposed on them, T Satyanarayana, general secretary of the AP Hotels’ Association, has said.

The GST rates will place an unbearable burden on the hotel industry and the common man, he said.

The association said in a press release that the GST rate on non-AC hotels had been fixed at 12 per cent and on AC hotels at 18 percent as against the present 5 per cent.

“Such high rates will drive away the ordinary people from hotels and they will eat at the roadside pushcarts run by vendors. It will become impossible to keep the hotels going,” he said and added that nowadays air-conditioning should not be deemed a luxury and such high tax rates were not justified on any count.