MALANG - The Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association (PHRI) Batu City, Malang, East Java asked the local government to immediately abolish hotel and restaurant taxes in the area.
Chairman of the PHRI Batu City, Sujud Hariadi said, currently the hotel and restaurant sector in Batu City is screaming for the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. "For companies, we want the abolition of taxes, until this pandemic really ends," said Sujud in Batu City, East Java, as quoted by Antara, Thursday, July 15.
Members of the Batu City PHRI expect the abolition of taxes in the 2020-2021 period. This is because the hotel and restaurant sector has not been able to recover due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Moreover, he continued, currently the government is also implementing the Enforcement of Emergency Community Activity Restrictions (PPKM), to suppress the addition of confirmed cases of COVID-19. Emergency PPKM also has a significant impact on hotel and restaurant businesses.
"So maybe, taxes that start in 2020 until the end of 2021 will be released first, so we can focus on recovery," he said.
Currently, he continued, hotel and restaurant entrepreneurs in Batu City are no longer talking about the pros and cons of their business. Instead, they are still trying to survive so that they can continue to operate, and not to do layoffs due to the impact of the pandemic.
"Currently we are no longer talking about profit and loss, but the important thing is to get income for operations. Just to survive," he said.
Therefore, the Batu City PHRI asked the Batu City Government to immediately be able to waive hotel and restaurant taxes, considering that up to now, the tax levy still applies 100 percent, even though it has been deeply affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
"So far, hotel and restaurant taxes are still charged at 100 percent. Some regions, such as Blitar, Ngawi, have been able to exempt hotel and restaurant taxes," he said.
PHRI Batu City also welcomed the Batu City Government's plan to help hotel and restaurant employees who were affected during the Emergency PPKM period. The plan is that the Batu City Government will distribute aid in the near future.
PHRI Batu City houses approximately 70 hotels and restaurants in the area, with a workforce of thousands of people.
Batu City is one of the tourist cities in East Java. During the Emergency PPKM period, all tourism sectors in the area were closed, including limiting mobility from other areas to enter Batu City.
To date, overall in the region, there have been 1,952 positive confirmed cases of COVID-19. Of the total, 1,566 people were reported to have recovered, 154 people were declared dead, and the rest were under treatment.
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