THoD NewsDesk, Mumbai: The Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI) and the Hotel and Restaurant Associations of India seek relaxation on the curfew in Maharashtra.
Arguing that the imposed hours for the curfew i.e. after 8 pm will affect the industry irreparably because it overlaps the particular business hours. The industry associations have stated that this may eventually result in layoffs and permanent shutting down of many businesses.
Writing to the Maharashtra government these associations have demanded to induce a waiver on the advance payments like excise license fees and capital levy. “We stopped working for a large part of the year then worked at a limited capacity. Asking us to shut for the dine-in hours of the night is on a par with closing down the business as those hours contribute to 75 per cent of the business”, Gurbaxish Singh Kohli, Vice-President, FHRAI said.
“With 30 per cent of the hotels and restaurants stop working within the country since the pandemic started last year and another 20 per cent not fully functional, the remaining are running in losses. These restrictions imposed by the curfew will cause the closing down of several businesses from the industry that contributes to the ten per cent of the country’s GDP”, Kohli added.
The Senior Vice-President of HRAWI, Pradeep Shetty said, “No matter what proportion the Government of India maintains that they distributed relief aids through initiatives but those packages were insufficient to stay the companies running through Covid-19. This impacted the income severely, resulting in the dip in GDP.”
The FHRAI and HRAWI have stated that the rental and salary expenses, servicing of debts taken earlier, negative cash flows and therefore the statutory payment obligations have made hospitality the foremost unviable and unsustainable business under the current situation.
Mentioning the expenses, statutory payments and debts taken within the past which have left the companies untenable, the FHRAI and HRAWI said the hospitality sector is more vulnerable than ever.
