The Hotel and Restaurant Association of Odisha (HRAO) has written to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik seeking support as the hospitality and travel industries face an uphill challenge to cut their losses caused by the outbreak of coronavirus. These industries have been severely affected in the past few months as the tourist footfall has drastically decreased.
“The travel trade and hotel industry of Odisha is going to bear a huge financial burden as many inbound tourists are cancelling their bookings, large conferences, banquet bookings and marriage bookings in most of the hotels,” said the letter to the Chief Minister.
Mohanty demanded deferment of bank loan repayments by hotel owners as they will struggle to keep the cash flow up during these difficult times. He also urged the government to temporarily waive SGST for the hotels as that would ease the burden.
Other demands were also made to the state government including waiver of fees for upcoming licenses and permit renewal such as electricity fee, groundwater fee, BMC holding tax, bar licence fee among others. The association has also requested a complete GST waiver for the Tourism, Travel and Hospitality industry for the next twelve months.