‘We will look at online approvals’

In a webinar conducted by Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI), Minister of Commerce & Industry and Railways, Piyush Goyal, shared his thoughts on demands
that are viable and the actions that need to be taken both by the association and the ministries.

Hazel Jain

Addressing the hotelier and restaurant community across India via a live webinar conducted by the Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI) on July 13, 2020, Piyush Goyal said that his department is willing to look at single-window clearances for the industry. “Yes, we will look at single-window clearances and simple online approvals. This can also take care of bureaucracy and corruption,” he said.

Goyal added, “You have brought out some key points and we will take some of them up with our ministry as well as the Finance Ministry. I will also request our Minister of Culture & Tourism, Prahlad Singh Patel, to look at some of them and see which ones can be resolved viably. There are very few restrictions from the Centre now. We have asked the states to take a call on the re-opening since they know the local conditions better. But, I will speak to the Home Ministry as well.”

The minister also responded well to the request for curbing illegal, unlicensed accommodation units in the country, especially those that are listed on OTAs. He said, “We will get this legally examined. There must be an element of registration or licensing that should be brought in for record-keeping purposes. Otherwise there is a risk of health and security. We must examine the legal implications.” Pradeep Shetty, Vice President, HRAWI, brought up a connected issue and said, “These OTAs, especially MakeMyTrip and OYO Rooms masquerading as e-commerce platforms, have completely distorted our market. All they are doing is just aggregating all our rooms and ensuring all traffic goes to them.”
To this, Goyal responded by saying, “We will have a joint meeting between OTAs and the industry to understand what their practices are, have their balance sheets examined to see if they are doing predatory pricing for data gathering. We must examine this carefully. I want a report on this in the next three weeks.”

Responding to the point of SEIS (Service Export Incentive Scheme) slab system suggested by FHRAI, he said, “We should look at the MSME category for charting out revival strategies.” The FHRAI team will now draw up specific and substantial ideas before it reverts to the minister. The minister also lauded the efforts made by this industry for stepping up and giving up their hotel rooms to essential health and government staff as well as distributing free food to the needy.