Coronavirus: 20 % occupancy, restaurants closed, now Poona Hoteliers Association demands financial reliefs from government

Pune, March 20, 2020: In the backdrop of complete shutdown due to Coronavirus outbreak, the Poona Hoteliers Association (PHA) has demanded financial reliefs from the government.

Currently, all hotels with rooms in Pune are operating at 20-30% occupancy rate, if the same continues even for the short run, there will be massive lay-offs as it will be operationally not feasible. The footfalls in restaurants have taken a drastic toll where the business is down by almost 80-90 %.

In a letter sent to Chief Minister Udhav Thackeray on March 17, PHA president
Sharan Shetty stated, “We highly appreciate and admire the concrete positive steps taken by you and your Government at the right time in preventing and restricting the spread of this pandemic situation. On behalf of PHA, we pledge our full support at this time of crisis in every way to the Government and people of Pune.”

He further said, “This outbreak across the state and the subsequent panic has caused disastrous consequences for our industry which is going to bear a huge financial burden as many inbound tourists are cancelling their room bookings. Conferences, banquet bookings, marriage bookings have already been cancelled in most of the hotels. The footfalls in our restaurants have taken a drastic toll where the business is down by almost 80-90%.”

“The pandemic has put our businesses on pause, forcing an unprecedented loss,
impacting the livelihood of thousands employed, inability to pay Bank and financial institutions to honour commitments, and a challenging time for our vendors and supply chain”, the letter further stated.

“We fear if steps are not taken in the wake of such an epidemic, financially the hospitality sector will be drained pushing unemployment and closure of
businesses. Hence we seek your kind intervention in considering the above interim reliefs in the larger interest of the entire hospitality industry”, Shetty requested the Chief Minister.

ln view of the above serious concerns, PHA has requested for the following interim relief from the Government.
1. Deferment of payment for renewal of Excise FL-III licenses till the situation is under control.
2. Total roll-back of 15% increment in FL-III license fees which is likely unsustainable in the current scenario.
3. Waiver of Property Tax for the current period 2020-21.
4. SGST should be waived off for the period 2020-21.
5. A complete GST Tax Holiday for the Tourism, Travel & Hospitality industry for the next twelve months till the time recovery happens.
6. Expedited SGST refunds.
7. Cancellations of duties and penalties from MSEDCL.
8. Subsidy on commercial fuel and gas for the hotel industry.
9. Relief from local body taxes namely health license, sky sign, etc for the year
2020-21
10. Relief of levies from agencies like PPI, IPRS, NOVEX, etc which will highly impact the hospitality industry during such tiring times,