Team Herald
PANJIM: The Travel and Tourism Association of Goa (TTAG) has appealed to the State government to defer, by six months, payment of electricity bills and waive billing on sanctioned load of all the hotels.
The letter to Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and Power Minister Nilesh Cabral cites a pitiable situation the tourism industry has been enduring as a result of the lockdown due to spread of COVID-19 pandemic.
“The Tourism Industry is hit the worst on account of the pandemic spread of COVID-19 as result of which all the hotels are running empty without any occupancies since the beginning of March 2020 which situation has become worse as the spread became pandemic all over the world. Thereafter, the Prime Minister has enforced a complete lock down of the entire country as a result of which all the hotels are closed or facing closure. Due to the curfew & lock down, the hotels are facing a very grim situation, which may damage the industry and the economy permanently unless corrective measures are taken immediately,” TTAG President Savio Messais said.
In view of the grave situation that the tourism trade and industry is undergoing, he urged the government to waive the requirement to pay minimum billing on sanctioned load of all the hotels and raise bills on only the actual consumption at the lowest tariffs for March 2020 and onwards, and to also defer the payment of the all the electricity bills by at least six months to enable the industry to recover after the return of normalcy.
“The billing presently based on the stipulated minimum monthly billing; if the establishment has not crossed the minimum billing amount needs to be waived immediately as a relief to hoteliers who now are not having any revenue as the tourism industry is completely shut down. It is also necessary to defer the date of payment of the bills by at least six months as that would be the minimum period which the industry will take to recover from the effects of the spread of coronavirus,” he said emphasising the need for relaxation.
In the letter, a copy of which is also submitted to the Chief Secretary and Electricity Department, Messias pointed out that other States have already taken steps to alleviate the sufferings of the tourism industry. Since Goa largely depends on tourism for revenue generation, the TTAG stated that the government needs to take measures to protect the industry from collapsing completely.
“This needs to be done immediately before issuance of the bills for the month of March 2020. The Travel and Tourism Industry has conveyed this request to the Government on March 20, March 2020 in pursuance of an emergency meeting of the TTAG held on March 19, 2020,” he added.
The tourism season has already come to an end before the actual completion of the season in May.
