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| Colombo City Restaurant Collective President Harpo Gooneratne |
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| Colombo City Restaurant Collective Vice President Darshan Munidasa
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Fearing imminent collapse, the Colombo City Restaurant Collective (CCRC) on Tuesday urged the Government to grant immediate relief by way of waivers as well as ensure early reopening with precautions.
CCRC’s concerns were expressed during a meeting chaired by Central Bank Governor Prof. W.D. Lakshman and involving Tourism Minister Prasanna Ranatunga, Money, Capital Markets and State Enterprise Reform State Minister Nivard Cabraal, Sri Lanka Tourism Chairperson Kimarli Fernando and travel, tourism and restaurant stakeholders.
Among suggestions made at the meeting by CCRC President Harpo Gooneratne were the provision of relief from utility bill payments for the months of April, May and June 2021 and allowing those cumulative rates to be paid off in equal instalments along with the rates of July to December period; exemption from excise license fees for the full period that restaurants are not allowed to serve alcohol to customers; allow the sale of alcoholic beverages to all dine-in customers in restaurants as currently permitted in tourist hotels as soon as lockdown restrictions are lifted; wave off penalties on all outstanding statutory payments, and abolish TDL and Municipality Tax for the current financial year.
The need for working capital loans from state banks at the same rate of 4% with movable property considered as collateral; extension of the moratorium on existing debt until the end of 2022 was also stressed.
Early resumption of restaurants and bars with precautions and catering to 25% of the capacity was emphasised as well.
CCRC said the Tourist Board approved restaurant and bar industry in Sri Lanka, like in other parts of the world, is a much-favoured segment of the hospitality and entertainment industry amongst foreign and local travellers. They add the much-needed diversity and vibrancy to the travel and tourism industry and provide direct and indirect employment and livelihoods to many hundreds of thousands of the population.
These restaurants and bars are formally established businesses that are registered and regulated by the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority and numerous other relevant local and central government level agencies and authorities. They contribute a substantial amount of revenue to the coffers of these bodies annually such as the 1% of its total revenue as the Tourism Development Levy paid every quarter.
However, CCRC pointed out that when it comes to formulating policies for the development of the tourism industry or providing relief measures during times of difficulty, such as the situation they are faced with today, the restaurant and bar industry has often been given scant regard or consideration for many years.
For example, even though relief measures proposed by the Ministry of Tourism and formulated and introduced by the Government to mitigate the downturn in the tourism industry due to the COVID-19 pandemic has immensely helped many hotels, guest houses and hostels, the restaurant and bar industry, has by and large been unable to obtain the Working Capital Loan offered at the concessionary 4% interest rate due to great majority of them not owning the premises they are located in and therefore being unable to provide Class A Collateral demanded by the banks as a prerequisite to qualify for these loans.
CCRC as the only representative body for the industry recognised by the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority has made repeated requests to the relevant authorities to accept the many state-of-the-art catering equipment owned by their member restaurants as collateral but those requests were repeatedly ignored or denied.
CCRC pointed out that due to this predicament the restaurant industry that was severely impacted by the Easter Sunday terror attacks of 2019 and three subsequent waves of COVID-19 is today undergoing an unprecedented financial crisis that threatens to cause the total collapse of the industry, which would result in the loss of billions of rupees invested in it, cause massive job losses and a loss of a substantial amount of revenue to the Government and damage the tourism industry immensely.
“What we have proposed are critical to the survival of the industry and the many livelihoods dependent upon it,” Gooneratne said adding immediate support is required with the resumption of tourism as CCRC members are an integral part.
