Bhubaneswar: After cyclone Fani, the COVID-19 scare has dealt another blow to the hotel and travel industry in the State. Keeping this in view, Hotel and Restaurant Association of Odisha (HRAO) has sought help from the government.
After a meeting held here Monday to figure out the loss due to COVID-19, HRAO, chairman, J K Mohnaty said hotels in the State are incurring huge loss as almost all bookings by inbound tourists, marriage functions and conferences have been cancelled.
“Most of the hotel owners are under huge loan burden. While these hotel owners have been struggling hard to repay the loans, the COVID-19 scare has left them nowhere,” he observed.
HRAO has demanded that in such a situation, the State government should advise banks to be less strict. Similarly, the State government should also support tourism and hospitality industry of the State by lifting SGST.
The association also demanded that BMC holding tax, bar licence fee, ground water fee and electricity fee should be lifted for some time and GST be lifted from tourism, travel and hospitality industries for at least a year.
“As of now, the hotel owners are giving top priority to keep their hotels neat and clean and pay salaries to their staff in time. So, the hotel owners are incurring some extra expenses. If any sector was worst affected by the cyclone Fani, it was none but the hotel industry. At that time, HRAO had demanded for assistance from the government. So far not a single cyclone-affected hotel has been compensated,” added Mohanty.
PNN