HAN urges finance minister to reduce interest rates

KATHMANDU, April 05:Hoteliers have said that due to the rising interest rates of banks, a very sensitive industry like hotels has become unsustainable.

The representative of the Hotel Association Nepal (HAN) met Finance Minister Dr. Prakasharan Mahat and urged him to reduce the interest rate and make it more business friendly.

Although the hotel industry has the responsibility to pay and pay the installments of capital taken and the interest to be paid on it, in this situation, it is highly affected and it is in the process of recovery.

Finance Minister Mahat has also been informed by the hotel businessmen that the hotel industry is not able to pay the principal and interest to the bank under any circumstances but there is a strong desire to pay the principal and interest from the bank within the limits. They have also demanded that the rescheduling and refinancing facility, which has not been addressed through the quarterly review of the monetary policy, should be clearly disclosed through the upcoming half-yearly review.

The delegation of Shreejana Rana, president of HAN, submitted a memorandum of understanding to the newly appointed Finance Minister, Dr. Prakasharan Mahat. On that occasion, the president of the association, Rana, informed that the hotel and tourism industry, which has been heavily affected by the Covid-19, has not yet recovered and the tourism business has not been revived.

They have also demanded that the hotel industry, which is the main source of foreign currency earnings and creates more jobs after spending a lot of money, should be included as a national priority industry in the upcoming budget and law, along with other productive industries. The first vice president of the association, Vinayak Shah, second vice president Prabin Bahadur Pandey, general secretary Sajan Shakya, working committee member Yuvraj Shrestha and legal advisor Gandhi Pandit were present.