The Bangladesh Bank has announced the guideline for utilising the government-announced new stimulus package of Tk 10 billion for the tourism industry.
The central bank issued a circular on Thursday, detailing the rules on how the hotel, motel, theme parks and other tourism organisations could avail the low-cost fund.
It said the employees of the tour operators were not getting monthly salaries and other benefits due to poor business activities amid Covid-induced lockdown.
The operation of such organisations remained closed for almost one and a half years due to the pandemic.
According to the circular, the repayment tenure of the loan under the new package -working capital or investment-will be of one year.
The rate of interest is 8.0 per cent, including a government subsidy of 4.0 per cent. So, the borrowers will have to pay only the remaining 4.0 per cent.
The accounts and budget department of the BB will give the subsidy on behalf of the government.
The loans can be used to provide salary of the employees of the tour organisations.
The loans can be renewed on the basis of bank-client relationship. But the subsidy will be applicable for only one year.
The organisations, which did not take such benefit previously, will be eligible for the working capital/investment.
The BB circular said that the banks can avail of the refinancing facility upto 50 per cent of their disbursement from the central bank.
The rate of interest of the refinancing fund will be 4.0 per cent and the tenure is one year.
The announcement on the stimulus package came as the tourism and travel industry has suffered an estimated loss of Tk 114 billion due to the fallout of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
According to the sector insiders said a number of tour operators, hotels, resorts, airlines and catering services where some 4.0 million people are involved are now struggling to survive.
The dismal situation of this sector is also reflected in the government's travel tax collection. The tax revenue from it during the immediate past financial year (FY) was the lowest in the last five years.
The sector operators had earlier alleged that they neither have received any fund from the government's stimulus package nor direct budgetary support to weather odds during one of the most difficult times in the world history.
Earlier, in a report in April 2021, the Tour Operators Association of Bangladesh (TOAB) had estimated the loss at Tk 57 billion loss until December 2020.
