Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 23: A meeting of All Jammu Hotels and Lodges Association (AJHLA) was held today in which the chairman of the Association expressed grave concern over the pitiable condition of hotel industry and sought Government support for the hoteliers.
He said the hotel industry, particularly budget hoteliers have been finished completely due to impact of COVID-19 coupled with lockdowns and there is no support extended by the Government for the hoteliers.
President AJHLA Pawan Gupta said that the stake holders of budget hoteliers are forced to lead a miserable and pathetic life due to zero hotel business but huge daily routine expenditure. “At this critical period of crisis, budget hotel industry strongly needs its hand holding by the Government, without which it would be wiped out completely from the map of hospitality,” he asserted.
In a communication sent to Lieutenant Governor of J&K Manoj Sinha, Pawan Gupta appealed the Government to come to their rescue by announcing a few measures/reliefs in favour of budget hotel industry such as formulation of a new tourism policy, granting soft loans to old self financed units for modernisation/renovation and all the benefits of manufacturing industries including power tariff and registration of hotel units once for all as in the case of manufacturing industries.
He further pleaded to raise the starting slab of GST charging and announcement of a special financial package in their favour on the pattern of package given in 2003 by then Prime Minister, late Atal Behari Vajpayee. He urged the Government to waive off electrical, water, municipal charges, etc for at least one year more or till J&K UT becomes COVID free.
Other office bearers present in the meeting were M L Sharma, Pritam Sharma, Anil Khajuria, HS Manhas, Baldev Raj, Sunil Suri, Varun Gupta, Swarn Singh, Sankul Gupta and Manpreet Singh.
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