FHRAI & HRAWI Welcome MP Govt.’s Waiver Of Excise License Fee

Mumbai, Nov 13: Hotels and restaurants in the State of Madhya Pradesh are breathing a sigh of relief with the State Government announcing waiver on the excise license fee across all license classes. Only days ahead of the Diwali festival, Hospitality industry considers the announcement as a sign of better times to come. The Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI) and Hotel and Restaurant Association of Western India (HRAWI), which played a pivotal role in bargaining the waiver from the Government, have welcomed it and hope that other States will follow suit.

The fee waiver will be pro-rata applicable from the month of April 2020 until August 2020, during which hotels and restaurants remained shut on account of the lockdown.

“We are thankful to the Madhya Pradesh Government for understanding the plight of the Hospitality industry. The waiver in the excise license fee is justified because establishments were not open for the period of almost eight months. Paying a fee for a service which was never availed would’ve been unfair. We are glad that we were able to present our case strongly and the MP Government seconded our reasoning,” says Mr. Sherry Bhatia, President, HRAWI.

“We thank the Hon. CM – Shivraj Singh Chouhan and his Government for considering our plea and offering us the waiver. Madhya Pradesh is a strong tourism State and with little to none tourists, especially international tourists arriving this year, the hospitality and tourism industry has received a massive blow. The distressed Hospitality sector welcomes this announcement which will definitely unburden some of the loss that the sector has faced for over eight months,” says Mr Sumit Suri, Executive Committee Member, HRAWI.

“The FHRAI has made similar representations in all the States that have levied the excise license fee. Technically, if the business is non-operational, the fee should not be levied. Moreover, businesses were shut because the Government had asked them to. We are glad that a few States, including now MP, have agreed but we will continue to plead with the remaining States for the waiver,” concludes Mr Gurbaxish Singh Kohli, Vice President, FHRAI.

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