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Hotel industry seeks support package amid nCoV crisis
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SME Times News Bureau | 28 Apr, 2020
With hotel industry severely hit due to the coronavirus crisis, the
President of the Hotel Association of India (HAI), Puneet Chhatwal, has
said that the government can come up with a wholesome package to help
the industry tide over the current crisis and also achieve long term
growth.
Speaking to IANS, Chhatwal said that any downturn can be
an opportunity to take important measures for a business or sector to
grow and thrive.
Chhatwal reiterated the industry body's stand
that statutory levies should be deferred as operations of hotels are
almost shut and emphasised on the long standing demand of industry
status for tourism.
Noting that although support for survival is
the need of the hour, the government can simultaneously come up with
measures for its revival and long term growth. He said: "We have to do
all three together as one package so that, we can survive, revive and
also thrive."
"If the government could create such a package it
could help survival in the short term, revival in the short to
medium-term and the thrival of the industry which creates the maximum
employment."
He said that as short term measures the association
has sought deferment of all statutory liabilities including EMI's to a
minimum of 12 months at centre, state and municipal levels along with
employment subsidy for three months by government contribution per
employee of 50 per cent of the salary.
For revival of the sector,
he noted that certain levies such as lease, license, rentals and excise
fees and as well as property taxes should be waived for the COVID-19
period as the properties are unutilised and operations are halted.
Talking
of the long run growth of the sector, he said that the government
should consider providing the industry or infrastructure status for the
tourism sector.
"If you are declared as an industry you get
certain benefits such as cheaper loans, cheaper utility services and so
on," said Chhatwal.
He also told IANS that tourism should be brought under the Concurrent List of the Constitution.
This
also has been a long standing demand of the sector for uniform industry
policies across states and less variation in the operations from state
to state.
Chhatwal, who is MD and CEO of Indian Hotels Company
Ltd, observed: "While the sector could see demand levels dropping by as
high as 30 per cent in the short to medium term, once a vaccine is
developed or the disease mutates and disappears, demand can also swing
back just as fast as public memory is short and there is a great degree
of pent up need to travel," he said.
Regarding the changes the
sector may see as the pandemic subsides, he said that new hygiene norms
would come up and things like sitting arrangements in restaurants and
other facilities may change, keeping in view the concept of social
distancing.
"Even post shutdown there will be new hygiene norms.
Similarly, maybe people will be going through a scanner to see if you
are infected. There will be a new normal and some of these things will
be part of our life," Chhatwal said.
He noted that it would also
depend upon how the industry reacts and communicates to the consumers,
how clean a hotel or its vicinity is.
In its recent letter to the
Prime Minister, the Hotel Association of India talked of the pain
suffered by the sector during the current crisis and said that with no
air or train or road traffic, the hotels are empty, its restaurants and
recreational facilities are shut and the likelihood of the revival in
the short term is uncertain.
With an economic valuation of $247 billion, the Indian hospitality segment accounts for 9.2 per cent of the overall GDP.
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