FHRAI meets Nirmala Sitharaman, seeks infra tag for hospitality industry

Representatives from Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Associations of India met Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday and sought granting of infrastructure status to the hospitality industry in the forthcoming Budget.

Currently, hotels built with an investment of Rs 200 crore or more have been accorded infrastructure status under the RBI infrastructure lending norm criteria. The association has requested that this threshold be brought down to Rs 10 crore to give a fillip to budget segment hotels.

This will enable hotels to avail term loans at lower rates of interest and also benefit from longer repayment periods. It has also requested for hospitality to be classified as an industry that's applicable across the country and create a corpus which compensates states for any notional loss, the association argued.

"FHRAI put forth to the minister specific requests with special emphasis on granting infrastructure status to the hospitality industry," a release stated.

The association also sought continuation of the Export Promotion Capital Goods Scheme (EPCGS) for another 10 years and extension on the repayment period under the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS).

The association has also requested for the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) loan term for the hospitality sector to be extended for a maximum period under the current provisions.

The association has requested that the repayment period be either enhanced to 10 years or as per the loan repayment period of the principal loan, whichever is longer, it said.