‘With you, shoulder to shoulder’

Aaditya Uddhav Thackeray, Cabinet Minister of Tourism and Environment, Government of Maharashtra, talks to Hotel & Restaurant Association (Western India) members in a freewheeling digital interview.

Hazel Jain

The young and dynamic minister who is pro-tourism and a friend of the hospitality industry, discussed plans for the state with Gurbaxish Singh Kohli, President, HRAWI and Vice President of FHRAI, along with other key members of the association. The association is looking to him to address three points: Need for liquidity and working capital, how to exit lockdown, and how to survive post lockdown. The webinar saw around 800 participants.

Aaditya Uddhav Thackeray emphasised on the need for a collaborative approach from all the stakeholders for revival and growth of the hospitality industry. “We recently had a meeting with the Ministry of Tourism in Rajasthan and the Government of Maharashtra to figure how we can collaborate in terms of tourism and hospitality,” he said.

In the wake of the industry being virtually abandoned by the Central Government, the industry’s eyes are set on state for help. To this, Thackeray said, “The reason why we have not announced any package for this industry is because we are fighting a battle at the forefront. As the state of Maharashtra, our every digit, every effort is accountable. This is a long-drawn battle and to fight it we need to look at economic sustenance as well. Having said that, I am extremely keen that Maharashtra be the first state to declare something promising and deliver on that promise for everyone.”

State’s focus on tourism

“My aim is to make the entire state of Maharashtra run on tourism. The state government wants to develop Maharashtra as a tourism-positive state. Probably the single-largest budget allocation for tourism was done this year where Mumbai alone got `1,500 crore and the rest of Maharashtra got a good budget, too. Then this pandemic happened,” said Thackeray. He also thanked the hotel industry that has helped the government of Maharashtra house healthcare professionals and police force for quarantine. “That is a very generous and brave act, and the frontline workers are grateful to you for this,” he added.

Exit strategy

In terms of getting out from the lockdown, Thackeray revealed that some five lakh workers have already started coming back to the 50,000 industries located in some of the green zones of Maharashtra. But, these zones keep fluctuating because of the number of cases that keep rising or falling. “Our tourism and hospitality industry will take some time to get back on its feet. I am going to write to the Centre for including some sort of package for the industry. Maharashtra has huge potential as a tourist destination. I want to pitch our state to the world. However, international travel will probably not start before December 2020,” he stated.

Task force for state

“I want to establish a task force for Maharashtra and I want you – the industry – to have an equal voice in that. As you said, hospitality has the industry tag to it but isn’t recognised as one. So, how do we work with other sectors closely in that? I would suggest that the task force we have made for the state’s economic revival – we have Deepak Parekh in it and a few more people from the finance and PE sectors – I would like us to create one document which we can present to them so we can work in sync. They can tell us what is doable in the short, medium and long term,” Thackeray suggested. From this, he said, some things might be where the government can give a sustenance package. But first, he added, we will need to ensure safety to all visitors to the state because that is going to be a
major concern.

Business travel, a focus area

With Mumbai the financial capital of India, the industry urged him to help promote business travel in the city. “Business travel is our core competency so we cannot ignore that. We cannot leave that out. We already have a plan to make Mumbai, Pune and Thane more vibrant in terms of using F&B and hotel space innovatively. That was the initial plan, but we will have to execute this now. Let us work on two clear agendas: one is how to sustain this lockdown period and come out of it safely, and how do we use open space keeping in mind physical distancing norms,” Thackeray summed up.

Issues put forth

• Need for liquidity and working capital and facilitating working capital requirements
• Exemption in electricity duty, which is charged at 21 per cent
• Property tax waiver for 6-9 months with the caveat that landlords should pass it on to the establishments
• Waiver of increased excise licence fees that are payable upfront
• Subsidies available to the manufacturing sector should be extended to hotels and restaurants