KATHMANDU, MARCH 21
The government has decided to give additional respite to hotels and restaurants, one of the sectors most affected by the coronavirus.
It has been decided to give electricity demand fee exemption to the hotels and restaurants that are registered at the Department of Industry. The license of such hotels and restaurants should have been renewed regularly and they should have submitted tax returns.
According to Government Spokesperson Parbat Gurung, the government has decided to waive 100 per cent demand fee of such hotels and restaurants for the lockdown period.
Similarly, the government has decided to give 50 per cent discount on the electricity demand fee to them from mid-October, when the lockdown was lifted.
He said the government has made the important decision to reduce the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the hospitality industry.
The decision was taken on Thursday and made public today.
Amid this, Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Bhanubhakta Dhakal reached Tribhuvan International Airport for inspection today. While construction of various physical infrastructure are underway at the airport, passengers have time and again complained at the lack of management.
Minister Dhakal instructed the airport management not to inconvenience the passengers while doing such works. According to Rajan Pokhrel, director general of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal, infrastructure construction and maintenance work are under way in full swing at the airport to optimise on the slow flow of passengers.
"After receiving complaints about this, we had conducted a field monitoring with the minister today," he said. "We have requested the contractors to keep in mind the convenience of the passengers while working."
According to Minister Dhakal's secretariat, the minister has instructed to rectify the shortcomings and said that he would revisit the airport in seven days to check on the progress.
A version of this article appears in the print on March 22, 2021, of The Himalayan Times.
