Himachal tourism industry under debt, wants curbs lifted

Pratibha Chauhan
Tribune News Service
Shimla, June 2

The beleaguered tourism industry has demanded that restrictions like e-pass and mandatory RT-PCR report should be done away with as the situation is easing out.

Hoteliers, travel agents, guides and taxi operators, who are dependent on tourist arrivals for their livelihood, are in dire straits with 75 per cent of the summer season having been washed out due to the second Covid surge in April-May. The fear of banks declaring loan accounts as NPAs is haunting those who had taken loans to meet their expenses.

A large number of hotels in Shimla, Dharamsala and Manali are on sale as owners are under huge debts. The situation is so bad that many taxi owners, who had taken vehicles on loans, are desperately looking for buyers to dispose these of. With no income for the second consecutive season, they are unable to pay their EMIs and the banks have started issuing them notices.

“Since only 25 per cent of the summer season remains, we urge the Chief Minister to lift the restrictions, especially the condition of an e-pass and negative RT-PCR report, to enter the state, so that tourists can visit without hassles,” said Mohinder Seth, president of the Tourism Industry Stakeholders Association.

Stakeholders are facing financial hardships, firstly because their working capital has exhausted and, secondly, the tourism has come to a grinding halt since March 2021.

The hoteliers explain that the RBI has brought the emergency credit line guarantee scheme 3.0 to provide relief to tourism, hospitality and travel sectors but most stakeholders could not take the benefit of the scheme due to its stringent conditions.

“The biggest hurdle in the scheme is that the cut-off date of the outstanding balance of loan is taken as on February 29, 2020, along with the condition that the account should not have default of more than 60 days as on February 2020, which is unreasonable,” says Seth.

He explains that a majority of tourism units were compelled to take fresh loans to meet their expenses because no help had been extended to the industry by the government since last year.

“The RBI needs to make amendments by extending the cut-off date to March 31, 2021, and to relax the condition of a number of days of default of EMIs,” he demands.

All those associated with the tourism industry are now pleading that

since the graph of Covid cases has flattened, the time is appropriate for lifting restrictions.