Representing Sri Lanka’s largest sector in tourism, The Hotels Association of Sri Lanka (THASL) in a statement yesterday hailed the budget as a pragmatic financial road map with a view to creating more job opportunities for the country’s youth and preserving foreign exchange by encouraging local businesses to invest in areas to curb imports.
“The Budget has created a level playing field for local entrepreneurs to compete against foreign players and given commitment to the business community of a stable tax regime for a period of 5 years,” the statement issued by THASL Chairman Sanath Ukwatte said.
“We also request the Government to implement a tax on foreign online service providers including foreign Online Travel Agents in order for the Government to earn additional revenue, and to protect the local agents and local entrepreneurs as practiced in other countries.”
THASL said the $ 10 billion worth tourism industry, although dormant due to the current pandemic, continues to come under the Government radar as an industry with great potential to contribute towards the economic development of the country.
THASL greatly appreciates the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa’s support on three key areas, namely:
1. Fiscal support by extending the moratorium on loans and interest up to September 2021.
2. Proposing a Government guaranteed debt restructuring mechanism to prevent the collapse of the industry. Industry awaits more clarity on this.
3. Simplifying the method of payment of municipality and local government taxes. This is a much debated issue and numerous court cases have been filed by hoteliers all over the country, and the industry is eagerly awaiting a final decision to this long outstanding matter.
“As the worst affected industry due to the pandemic, we expected from this Budget a thumbs up for the cabinet approved wage support scheme for the most vulnerable section of the workforce. The industry once again appeals to the Government for help to protect the income of thousands of workers in severe difficulty,” THASL said.
Given the fact that for the eighth consecutive month the country has recorded tourists arrivals as zero, THASL requests the Government to reopen borders following strict health guidelines and implement travel corridors and travel bubbles between certain countries in order to restart tourism and save jobs.
(FT)