Dharamsala, April 13
Thousands of employees in the service industry and the retail sector in Kangra district are unlikely to get salaries for the month of April, as small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are staring at losses due to the curfew.
More than 50,000 people in Kangra district are directly or indirectly employed in hotels, restaurants, retail stores and shopping malls.
Ashwani Bamba, president of the Hotel Association Dharamsala, said that hotels and restaurants in the district could pay only sustenance allowance to their employees for April. The tourism industry in the region was already facing a liquidity crunch due less tourist footfall during winter months. Now, the tourist season when they earn for the rest of the year was almost ruined due to the coronavirus outbreak. “The tourism industry in Kangra is small and medium in nature and does not have the liquidity to pay salaries to the staff. We do not expect business in the sector for the next six months,” he said.
Meanwhile, the tourism sector is demanding various concessions from the government to cope with the crisis. The hoteliers are disappointed that the government has not come forward to help them.
Bamba said that the Punjab Government had already announced waiver of electricity load charges for small and medium enterprises. However, hefty load charges were being imposed on hotels in the state, he added.
Balbir Singh, who worked in a shopping mall at Dharamsala, said that he was paid just 20 days salary for March. “The mall owners paid salary only for the period before the lockdown. Though we have not yet got retrenchment orders, there are chances that we will not be paid salary for the month of April,” he added.
Most of the big retail stores in Kangra such as Big Bazaar, Vishal Mega Mart, and Reliance Trends are closed. The companies have written to the owners of the buildings where these stores are located that they will not be able to pay rent for the period for which their enterprises remain closed. In such a scenario, a large number of employees working in these stores have an uncertain future. Given the bleak situation, there is a threat of massive unemployment in the region in the coming days.
Source : https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/himachal/sme-employees-unlikely-to-be-paid-salaries-for-april-70959