On behalf of the Kerala Tourism Industry, Baby Mathew, President of the Kerala Travel Mart Society, thanked the Government of India for its intervention to help the industry during its worst crisis by introducing ECLGS 3.0, a special credit guarantee window created to cover business enterprises in hospitality, travel and tourism, and leisure and sporting sectors effective March 31, 2021.
- The request asks the Hon. Finance Minister of India to investigate the anomalies in the operational guidelines and FAQ.
- One of the clauses is inherently contradictory to the proposed spirit of the scheme which is to help borrowers by assessing their accounts on a pre-pandemic status.
- Due to the second devastating wave of COVID-19, there is literally no domestic tourism business.
The government extended the emergency credit line guarantee scheme by another 3 months till June 30 and also widened its scope to new sectors, including hospitality, travel, and tourism. ECLGS 3.0 would involve extending credit of up to 40 percent of total credit outstanding across all lending institutions as of February 29, 2020, the Finance Ministry said in a statement. The tenor of loans granted under ECLGS 3.0 would be 6 years including a moratorium period of 2 years.
A request was made to the Hon. Finance Minister of India to investigate the anomalies in the operational guidelines and FAQ released by the National Credit Guarantee Trustee Company Ltd. (NCGTC), due to which, the scheme itself is being nullified.
Under “Borrower Status,” as per the scheme notification, clause 1, 4 and 7 of the operational guidelines and FAQs No. 8 and 109, the scheme proposes to extend support to tourism, travel, and hospitality accounts which were classified as regular, SMA-0, and SMA -1 and whose DPD (days past due) were not beyond 60 days as of February 29, 2020.
