Cabinet to take up memo on electricity concessions for tourism sector today

The Cabinet memorandum to offer concessions on the electricity bills for tourist accommodation providers is expected to be taken up at the Cabinet meeting today.
While the memorandum was previously referred to the Cabinet, the possibility of extending a concession for the tourism sector will be presented today by Tourism Minister Prasanna Ranatunga.

Although the hard-hit sector received no mention in the 2022 Budget for relief, Minister Ranatunga acknowledged the industry is still in need of assistance given the slow-paced recovery witnessed. “The economic situation of service providers related to the tourism sector has not fully improved yet. The use of electricity was essential to keep the hotels afloat and the government provided relief in view of this situation. “The Cabinet paper is presented as the government is of the view that the concession should be granted until the tourism industry recovers,” said Minister Ranatunga in a statement to the media yesterday.
The Cabinet paper that will be presented today will call for electricity concessions that have been given to businesses from 1 March 2020 to 28 February 2021 to be extended till the end of this year.  It also calls for a grace period to be provided to settle arrears and accumulated bills where a request has been made to allow payments to be made in 36 installments from 1 January 2022.