Only
10% workers are back to work
Kathmandu, July 24
A 25-room tourist-level Hotel Sampada in
Bhairahawa, the gateway to Lumbini, was in business for a year-and-a-half when
the deadly coronavirus pandemic hit the country and lockdown was imposed to
control the virus. The hotel went out of business immediately while uncertainty
prevailed.
Managing Director of the hotel Sital Dhakal
sent the workers to their homes amidst the unpredictability. The hotel that
resumed services after six months with a handful of workers was again out of
business during the second wave of the pandemic. Dhakal's troubles were
unfathomable, he had millions in debt and he has been paying 13 per cent
interest in repayment. "Many businessmen like me have poor knowledge about
the government-announced business support facilities. What we want is better
environment to run our business," he said.
Dhakal's case is representative of the
entire tourism and hospitality sector which is the fourth largest employer in
Nepal. Entrepreneurs are fearing that the technically sound human resource
might be displaced from the business and confidence of investors would hit the rock
bottom.
Entrepreneurs especially fear the shortage
of technical human resources in mountaineering and adventure sports sectors. “Nepal
has the best branding in adventure tourism, if we lose people involved in this
sector, it would take some years for us to achieve the pre-pandemic status,”
said Ramesh Dhamala, former President of Trekking Agencies' Association of
Nepal (TAAN).
"It takes many years to prepare skilled
manpower in adventure tourism like mountaineering, rafting, bungee jumping,
rock climbing and other sports. It is distressing that skilled human resources
are leaving their profession in order to get employment in other sectors,"
he said.
Tourism directly employs about 400,000
people while more than a million are indirectly benefitted. However, President
of Hotel Association of Nepal (HAN) Binayak Shah claimed that about 1.1 million
or so people are directly or indirectly associated with the tourism business.
The Economic Survey 2018 by the Central Bureau of Statistics put the number of
employees in the tourism sector at 371,140 but it did not count the independent
workers in mountaineering, taxi drivers and guides.
According to the industry estimates, about
200,000 tourism workers – employed formally or informally – have lost their jobs.
"Only 10 per cent of the workers in
the hotel sector are back to the work now but there is no indication to run the
business in full capacity and get all the employees back to their job,"
said Shah.
Poor
execution of budget programmes
Tourism entrepreneurs are critical of the
poor implementation of the government-announced programmes and lacklustre in
offering support in business revival. The sector had witnessed a loss of about
Rs. 71 billion in the Fiscal Year 2019/20 resulting in the negative sectorial
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 16 per cent. Hundreds of hotels, trekking
agencies and other tourism businesses are shut owing to the prolonged
uncertainty to restart the business.
Shah expressed wrath over the inefficiency
of the government agencies to implement the programmes in time.
"The budget of the current FY 2021/22
has announced 'free visa' for foreign tourists for a month and 10-day paid
tourism leave for government employees but neither the immigration offices have
any circular regarding the 'free visa' offer nor the Tourism Ministry has
formulated the procedures for the paid tourism leave," he said.
"Policy supports are more important than short term monetary rewards. What
is the benefit of paying taxes to the government if we don't get any benefits
during hard times?" he asked.
Similarly, Dhakal is perplexed with the
policy at immigration office at the Nepal-India border in Bhairahawa where
people can cross the border on foot but can't bring vehicles in or take out of the
country.
"Tourists don't come on foot. But this
policy of not allowing cross-border vehicular movement has serious
repercussions on the tourism business in Bhairahawa and Lumbini," he said.
As many countries in the West have included
Nepal in their travel advisories, Indian tourists could be the major catalyst
to run businesses for the time being.
Confidence
should be boosted
Dhamala said that the confidence of tourism
and hospitality entrepreneurs has been massively impacted due to the lockdowns,
restrictions and uncertainty of the situation.
Tourism businesses said that they have to
manage government taxes, employees' salary, house rent and bank interest while
income has been almost nil for the last one-and-a-half years.
"Business confidence is the key factor
in business survival and revival. If the government works to maintain
confidence through policy reforms, rest will be managed by the private
sector," said Shah.
In order to maintain the confidence, the
sector needs concessional and business continuation loans to the large
enterprises, financial support and continuation loans to the small and medium
enterprises (SMEs) and monetary support to the employees and workers.
About Rs. 1,500 billion is invested in
tourism sector.
"The government must consider the past
one-and-a-half years as a zero hour and waive off all renewal fees, taxes and
penalties. It should be applicable in the future as well as long as the
uncertainty of the pandemic prevails," said Dhamala.
Most of the businesses have demanded
universal vaccination to the entrepreneurs and workers to support business
operation and boost confidence in the businesses.
Circular
and procedures soon
The government has announced business
revival and rehabilitation schemes that included refinancing, concessional
loans, business continuation loans and discounts in interest. The budget of the
current fiscal also announced that the facility would be continued this year as
well, and they would be extended for the tourism sector in the years to come,
if necessary.
Spokesperson of the Ministry of Culture,
Tourism and Civil Aviation, Tara Nath Adhikari said that the Monetary Policy of
FY 2021/22 would design the programmes announced in the budget of this year.
According to him, the circular to the
immigration office about the 'free visa' could be due to the flight
restrictions to and from major tourism source markers. He also said that the
procedures for paid tourism leave is being prepared and will be completed by
mid-August.
"The government relief is nominal in
terms of business support. What we need is opening up," he said.
Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 25 July 2021.
