Hotel & Restaurant Association of Odisha (HRAO) has appealed to the Government of India to come up with much needed, jobs and business revival relief package for tourism and hospitality sector – which is the first and worst affected due to the spread out of COVID-19 pandemic.
There was a huge expectation from the ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan’ relief package, however the industry stakeholders were highly disappointed as the sector was totally neglected and ‘No Relief’ was given to the tourism and hospitality players.
Speaking on this development, J.K Mohanty, MHCIMA Chairman – Hotel & Restaurant Association of Odisha & IATO Eastern Region says: “For the last four days we heard Hon’ble Finance Minister declaring various packages /incentives for the MSME Sector, Agriculture, Marine & Aquaculture, Food Enterprises, Diary infrastructure, Aerospace, Coal & Mining etc., etc. Hon’ble Sir, the Finance Minister completely ignored the tourism, travel and hospitality sector from her bailout packages.”
“The tourism industry has been worst affected and will remain affected even for about six months after the lockdown is declared open. People will not travel due to scare of the infectious disease and hotel rooms will remain empty for a long time,” he added.
The hotel industry which is highly capital intensive, is also one of the largest backbones of the tourism sector. Empty rooms means huge business loss and repayment of EMIs to the banks and financial institutions, payment of salary to staff and other statutory dues will become impossible.
Mohanty says that the hotel industry which is highly capital intensive is only asking for a minimum of one year moratorium on all working capital, principal, interest payments, loans and overdrafts and Soft loan at concessional rate of interest up to four years for hotel industry which will help them sustain and revive.
Further, enable hotels to collect GST / SGST and use the same as Working Capital for next six months. Hon’ble Sir, as you have been regarded as a Champion of Growth and a Global Leader, we appeal before you to kindly relook at the tourism sector for its survival which engages more than 5 crore people and has potential of doubling the employment and can be the Driving Force of the Indian Economy.
Hon’ble Prime Minister had declared that if every Indians visits 15 domestic tourist destinations there would be huge demand for hotels and other services in the tourism sector. The hospitality and tourism sector had always looked upon the Government and was expecting the financial bailout package from the announcements made by the Hon’ble Finance Minister.
