Curfew-hit city restaurants call for urgent debt, rent relief

Hit by the COVID-19 preventive measures including indefinite curfew and social distancing, the Colombo City Restaurants Collective (CCRC) is calling for urgent relief, including moratorium on debt,

Colombo City Restaurants Collective President Harpo Gooneratne

support on rent and exemption of rates as well as waiver of taxes on imported food.

“The COVID-19 pandemic hit us at a time while we were still recovering from the Easter Sunday bomb attacks of 2019 and while we were harbouring expectations of considerable growth and stability in the sector in 2020. However, our industry has currently ground to a near standstill and seems like it will continue to have an adverse impact on the restaurant industry for at least a period of one year,” Colombo City Restaurants Collective President Harpo Gooneratne said.

According to him, the decline in tourist arrivals and related business and the expected downturn in the overall economic condition is expected to have a seriously negative impact on its members and is certain to have a severe impact upon the balance of payments situation of the whole restaurant industry.

Gooneratne said being highly labour intensive, the restaurant industry directly employed upwards of 30,000 people and many more people earned their living informally through this industry.

 Curfew-hit...

“Therefore, we as restaurateurs are extremely concerned about the impact the current situation, where we are unable to operate our day-to-day business in any form or manner, will have on those who are in our employment,” Gooneratne said.

He said about 80% are from the rural areas, low wage earners and the labour force consists of a combination of a few specialised but mainly semi-skilled and unskilled employees whose sole livelihood is the income generated from their jobs.

Some of the recommendations put forward by Colombo City Restaurants Collective (CCRC) are:

• The Working Capital Loans Program already announced by the Government not be subjected to any collateral guarantees but be based on a feasible business plan.
• A Government or banking sector supported wage assistance program that allows us to safeguard the jobs of all those employed in the restaurant sector until we are allowed to resume business operations, as the association cannot handle it on our own.
• A Government-backed rent assistance program that would ensure that we have premises to resume our business once conditions allow us to.
• Exemption from rates and utilities for the non-operational period.
• A moratorium on all existing debt inclusive of loans, leases and any outstanding operational debt.
• Cumulative interest for a period of six months from the date we are allowed to resume regular business activities and a restructure of loans repayment periods.
• Introduction of reasonable Local Government and national level tax concessions for the current fiscal year.
• A moratorium on late payment penalties on EPF/ETF payments until April 2021.
• Reduce taxes on imported food items so that prices could be made affordable to the consumer.

“Any assistance from the Government during this difficult stage will be of immense help to tide over the present crisis,” Gooneratne said.

CCRC is the only legally registered body with the Ceylon Tourist Board representing all the restaurateurs and the industry in general. Its recommendations were made whilst commending the Government for the exemplary measures taken so far to curb COVID-19.