Tag Archives: FHRAI

India’s apex hotel association, FHRAI has appealed to Government of India to aggressively promote domestic tourism this year, and recommended that incentivising domestic tourism by offering tax exemption under Section 80C of up to Rs50,000 to Indian nationals will encourage them to travel, thus helping achieve the goal.

Sharing his expectations on the impending Budget, Gurbaxish Singh Kohli, Vice President, FHRAI, says, “We request Nirmala Sitharaman and Prahlad Singh Patel to bring tourism under the Concurrent List of the Constitution along with granting industry status to the hospitality sector. Lack of adequate support is impeding survival and revival efforts.”

Himanshu Talwar, Assistant Secretary General, FHRAI, has been given the additional responsibility as the Additional Director at FHRAI Institute of Hospitality Management (FIHM), Greater Noida. Management of FHRAI has bestowed the new responsibility on Talwar, where he will be working under the guidance of the Secretary General, FHRAI.

FHRAI has asked the government to provide soft loans with low interest rate to hotel and restaurant players to help cover working capital requirements and help them sustain themselves. This, the Federation says, can support the industry until it reaches the pre-pandemic business levels.

FHRAI has welcomed FSSAI’s enforcement rules making registration mandatory for home-cooked food sellers, whether operating from home or from dark kitchens. “FSSAI has responded to our plea and is taking to task any such unregulated and illegal dark kitchens. Quite a few of these are actually funded and run by the Food Service Aggregators (FSAs) to escape responsibilities attached to operating restaurants legally,” says Gurbaxish Singh Kohli, VP, FHRAI.

Tarun Bajaj, Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, during a webinar organised by FHRAI, shared his view on moratorium extension and debt restructuring. He said, “Extending the moratorium is not a solution as it is only postponing it; it is better to get restructuring done so that you know what is to be paid and in how much time.”

The Principal Economic Advisor, Ministry of Finance, Sanjeev Sanyal, said during a webinar for FHRAI members, “We have, through the one-time loan restructuring option, offered to alleviate the financial burden on businesses. If for any reason this provision is not working, then the government wants to take your feedback and work on an action-plan to make it work. If this means that the banks, for some reason have displayed inhibition in co-operating with the businesses trying to avail of the government’s scheme, then we will take necessary action to rectify it.”

In today’s FHRAI webinar with Sanjeev Sanyal, Principal Economic Adviser, Ministry of Finance, Government of India suggested FHRAI to put forth their general problems along with other Associations like CII and FICCI. The main problem that Association addressed pertains to restructuring of loans and extending the moratorium period. They also said that onetime restructuring which was allowed till March 31 is not taken very seriously. Sanyal said that the restructuring guidelines addressed in KV Kamanth Committee will not be considered in a normal account, banks may not be taking the guidelines seriously but RBI is. Plus, he suggested that it is important to focus on the schemes that are already existing in the framework and push it forward. Association also requested that moratorium should continue until the situation is better and banks could get a solution. They also mentioned that Amitabh Kant is making some progress in deal with Saudi Arabia for a new credit line. To which Sanyal said that funds is not a problem, economy is doing good, there is liquidity in the market, the task is how to leverage it.

The state has issued a directive that allows all hotels and lodges to operate at 100 per cent capacity from September 2, 2020. Separate SOPs will be issued for necessary precautions to be taken while operating these establishments. Gurbaxish Singh Kohli, President, Hotel & Restaurant Association of Western India, says, “We are happy that the government has allowed 100 per cent capacity utilisation for hotels in the state. Meanwhile, since restaurants are not included in the current negative list, it is understood that restaurants are also allowed to re-open like those that have re-opened in the rest of the country. We have sought clarification on this from the government. Also, we had hoped that it would relax the limit of 50 people at social gatherings, especially for weddings. We had requested that this be based on the size of the venue.”

FHRAI has requested Minister of Finance and the RBI for an extension of moratorium for an additional 3 months, adding that 90% of the hospitality sector could be declared as NPAs post August 31. In another move, it has requested Ministry of Home Affairs for relaxing of quarantine norms for domestic travellers as well as permission to open bars and banquet halls, among others.