Sri Lanka’s tourism stake holder says government’s relief package for tourism sector falling into place
President of the Colombo City Hotels Association, S. Shanthikumar has reportedly said that both the debt moratorium and the working capital proposed by Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Finance as a ‘Relief Package’ to strengthen the tourism industry following the Easter Sunday attacks is now finally falling in to place.
He has told the media that the two state banks, Bank of Ceylon and People’s Bank have agreed to differ the loans taken before April 21 for a period of one year including interest.
Capital and interest due during the moratorium period would be converted into a term loan which should be recovered from July 2020 and charged at a concessionary rate.
In addition, the two State banks have reportedly agreed to offer fresh working capital with a repayment period of two years with a 75% interest subsidy borne by the government from the effective interest rate until March 31, 2020.
“In both these scheme the hotels have only got to the paper work to obtain them and we are thankful to the government for coming up with this timely scheme,” Shanthikumar has added.
OSL take:
The statement by the tourism stakeholder is a positive sign on the steps taken to revive Sri Lanka’s tourism sector following the Easter Sunday attacks. The country’s tourism sector is already showing signs of returning to normalcy. Several international airlines have already announced plans to resume flights to Colombo while luxury cruise liners have already called at Sri Lanka. Therefore, foreign businesses/investors could explore business/investment opportunities in Sri Lanka’s tourism sector.
| Article Code : | VBS/AT/13062019/Z_4 |