Bengaluru: Steep increase in prices of milk products, especially the price of paneer, is prompting paying guest accommodations to consider increasing per-person rent by Rs 500 a month — a second such increase in four months.Students and working professionals who stay in PGs will have to loosen their purse strings as PG owners have gone back to the drawing board doing maths on a likely rent revision. They argued that rental revisions are to cut losses and not to make profits.A PG owner in Shanthinagar said it was a toss-up between higher rents and a cutback on what’s offered in a thali. For now, they serve paneer three days a week and milk and curd every day. The paths are clear: either reduce frequency and quantity or hike rents.Another PG owner, who runs three units in Marathahalli, said expensive paneer was a key villain and hinted at a decision next week.At present, basic beds in a PG cost Rs 5,000, average beds Rs 8,000 to Rs 9,000 and luxury PGs up to Rs 20,000. Arun Kumar DT, president of PG Welfare Association, said: “With work-from-home still an option in many companies, most PGs are running at about 70% of their capacity. We’ve to bear losses while maintaining the quality of food.”Paying Guest Accommodation Welfare Association, Bangalore, recently announced a hike in rent effective August 1, citing that prices of essential commodities had gone up since March.Rents went up by Rs 500 for three- and four-person rooms and by Rs 1,000 for one- and two-person rooms. The association cited higher costs of food supplies, cleaning material, salaries, electricity, water, gas and maintenance of fans, motors, lifts, generators and borewells. While a gas refill jumped from Rs 1,800 to Rs 3,300 in two months, a rice bag became costlier by Rs 400 and a cooking-oil box by Rs 500.At the receiving end are working professionals like Lalitha R, who lives in a PG in Mahadevapura. She said the owners were planning to replace paneer with soya chunks. Another PG, according to her, has reduced the supply of curd to just once a day. “This is terrible,” she added.
