THASL looks for tourism debt restructuring from Budget

• Proposes issuance of long-term Govt.-backed bonds to finance accumulated interest portion of all tourism loans

THASL President Sanath Ukwatte

The Hotels Assoc-iation of Sri Lanka (THASL) is looking for further support from the Government via Budget 2022 to be presented today, with a plea to restructure the long-term debt of the industry.

“The industry is expecting support from the Government for long-term debt restructuring by way of waiving the accumulated interest during the closure of our businesses and re-profiling the outstanding capital into a longer payment period with lower interest,” THASL President Sanath Ukwatte told journalists.

THASL has submitted a plan and proposed to issue long-term Government-backed bonds to finance the accumulated interest portion of all tourism loans.

“The bonds can later be settled by the hotel industry at a nominal interest rate and in that way the Government can help strengthen the banking sector as well,” he added.

THASL also hopes the wage support scheme, which the Cabinet approved last year although it has not been implemented yet, will be looked addressed in the 2022 Budget.

“Hoteliers are struggling to pay wages of employees. The industry is charged high utility rates compared to other industries and these bills have not been settled due to the low cash flow.”  “Now that we see signs of tourism bouncing back, we have appealed to the Government to give us an easy payment scheme spread over three years for the settlement of arrears of utility bills from January 2022,” Ukwatte said.

THASL has also requested the Government for the SVAT scheme which was granted last year for exports.

It was pointed out that the tourism industry contributes to around 10% of employment in Sri Lanka and 12% of the country’s GDP. In addition, the industry has invested over $ 15 billion, which in turn has improved the rural economy and generates foreign exchange to the national economy.

“With the rebound of the tourist arrivals, we are confident that industry can once again generate employment and generate much-needed foreign exchange and restore the livelihood of three million dependents,” Ukwatte said.