Lockdown hit restaurant owners of Assam demand special package

May 5: The outbreak of coronavirus pandemic and subsequent nationwide lockdown has brought life to a standstill. Economic activities for more than 40 days came to a halt. Assam too is no exception to this phenomenon. It is in this context that the All Assam Restaurant Association (AARA),  a single voice organization representing the Food Service Industry of the state gave a memorandum to the Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal wherein they sought the intervention of the government and urged upon to provide them a special package to relieve them of the economic crisis.

AARA highlighted some of the crucial factors, which if mitigated could enable them to overcome the crisis augmented by the coronavirus pandemic. In their memorandum, addressed to the Chief Minister, AARA wrote, “since December 2019. Our business has been hit the most and we are fighting to survive and to prevent job losses of our staffs while saving the hopes and aspirations of many entrepreneurs. We all have been drastically hit by this pandemic and at this moment we require your urgent help and support.”

The restaurant owners appealed before the state government to “To issue a circular to a greater business community for rent relaxation of all the tenants concerned not only for this lockdown period but also for the next 6 months.” They also urged upon the Chief Minister to provide them low Interest collateral free special bail out working capital loan schemes so that they can keep themselves afloat as well as take care of their employees.

As regards utility payments AARA wrote, “We request the government to provide us with exemption/subsidies from payment of all utility bills for next 6 months, such as electricity, water, gas etc. which are supplied by either state, PSU or private parties.” They further requested the government to extend the validity of all licenses/ registrations for a period of 12 months starting April 1, 2020. Mentioning about statutory dues, AARA appealed to defer “the due dates for payment of statutory dues like GST, income Tax, etc so that we can maintain the required cash flow to come out of this situation.”

AARA finally put up a proposal before the Chief Minister where they stated, “We propose that with the newly emerged home delivery trend, we should have our food aggregator service in partnership with AMTRON which would make sure that the money of Assam stays in Assam while saving the restaurant industry from the ever increasing commissions from the already established aggregators.”