July 14, 2020 TnH Global

FHRAI apprises Piyush Goyal of the hospitality industry’s issues

In a virtual meeting with Piyush Goyal, Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, and Railways, held on Monday, FHRAI discussed with him the issues India’s Hospitality industry is confronting. The Minister assured members of FHRAI that the Government is doing everything in its capacity to alleviate the pain of every sector, including hospitality and tourism. “We should look at MSME category for charting out revival strategies. I acknowledge the importance and need for single-window clearance and I am on board with the industry for expediting this policy. A transparent online process is the need of the hour for establishing Ease of Doing Business and which is beneficial for both the Government and for businesses,” said Goyal, addressing a virtual meeting organised by FHRAI. He assured the FHRAI to investigate the conduct of the OTAs regarding market distortion and dominance on the back of international funding which has severely affected several small hotels across India.

The meeting discussed key issues of the hospitality industry like the ease of doing business, copyrights, Service Export of India Scheme (SEIS) and other pertinent issues faced by the hospitality industry. FHRAI apprised the Minister about the tremendous setback and the consequent loss suffered by the industry over the last four months. The Association informed the Minister that the industry is already staring at a whopping Rs.1.40 lakh crore loss which will increase further if the Government does not urgently intervene and rescue the sector. FHRAI will present a document of issues and their probable solutions to the Minister for his perusal.

“At a time when we need the Government’s support the most, the Hospitality and Tourism industry which contributes 10 per cent of the GDP has largely been ignored. The industry has not received any kind of stimulus or support throughout this phase of the lockdown. Hospitality deals with most perishable commodities like room inventory and restaurant table bookings which once lost are irreplaceable and which is why the service sector cannot be measured with the same yardstick as the manufacturing sector,” says Gurbaxish Singh Kohli, VP, FHRAI & President, Hotel & Restaurant Association of Western India (HRAWI);

Kohli added, “At present, the sector is in dire need of working capital to survive and then only can we revive. Across the country, approximately 50,000 rooms have been allocated for the health care workers and 4000 of our member hotels have joined hands with the State and Central authorities for letting their hotels as quarantine facilities. Restaurants too have been doing their bit by distributing food packets to the needy.”

Besides, the Minister, VP of FHRAI, the meeting was attended by Pradeep Shetty, Jt. Hon. Secretary, FHRAI & VP, HRAWI; Vivek Nair, Member of Honor, HRAWI; Surendra Kumar Jaiswal, VP, FHRAI and others.