The GST rates announced by the Union Government will cripple the hotel industry and place an unbearble burden on the common man and therefore the hotels in South India have decided to observe a day's bandh on May 30 to register their protest, according to Mr T. Satyanarayana, the general secretary of the AP Hotels' Association.

He and other office-bearers of the association told reporters here on Saturday 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 public from hotels and they will eat at the roadside pushcart 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 account.

He said the association had represented the issue to the Union Government but there was no response. He said all the hotels in South India would participate in the bandh and urged the public to co-operate with them.

He said the demand of the association was that GST should be pegged at 5 per cent only for all categories of hotels.