The Hotel and Restaurant Association of Odisha has urged Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to extend the moratorium period to four years on loans to the hotel industry.
While appreciating the measures taken by the Union Government to boost tourism and hotel industry in the post Covid period, association chairman JK Mohant urged for increasing the moratorium period on the ECLGS=1 and ECLGS-2 so that the hotel industry get some relief to revive. "The travel trade is expected some short of grants as relief for revival of the business or interest free loan upto a period of three years to enable the travel trade to revive.
A limit of Rs 10 lakh for travel agents and tour operators should not be the benchmark. The amount may be fixed on income of the companies looking at their balance sheet of last three years," it said.
The hotel industry had appealed for extension of moratorium but the Finance Minister has not yet commented anything on the same. Without tourists and movement of corporate travellers during this lockdown period, hotels are mostly closed. It was, therefore, requested to extend four years moratorium for revival of the hotel industry, Mohant said.
He also appealed to the Government to have a re-look at the tourism sector and also focus on world class tourism infrastructure building of India to enable India to compete with its neighbouring countries of South East Asia such as Japan, Thailand, Philippines, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Nepal, China etc.
Besides, Mahant was grateful to the Union Government for allowing 5 lakh tourist visas free upto March 2022, but at the same time he requested the Government to extend the deadline upto March 2023.