The biggest issue the Hospitality, F&B and tourism industries are facing right now is cash
conservation to fight the war of the Covid-19 virus. The biggest cost in these businesses are
staff costs and rentals followed by utilities.
The government has issued a directive to waive SST for 6 months for hotels only but not for
F&B businesses. Additionally, TNB has announced a discount of 15%, but applicable only for
hotels and not for F&B. These SME’s are actually the biggest group of employers in the country
aside from the government. They may only have 20-200 employees but because we have tens
of thousands of SME’s Nationwide, the total number is in the millions of employees.
With the prolonged movement control and a possible lockdown, these companies could
collapse, wiping out thousands of jobs throughout the country. Any form of relief is critical at this
stage to combat this crisis together in order to keep the industries and businesses afloat, ease
their cash flow and to avert a potential loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs in the hospitality,
F&B and tourism industries.
We are proposing the following steps – to be taken immediately – to avoid an economic meltdown:
