Amusement park industry fears huge losses, seeks sops

The Rs 2,300-crore amusement parks sector, which directly employs 80,000 people, is staring at huge reverses including financial distress, job losses and closure of assets due to the COVID-19 pandemic, an industry body said on Thursday.

The Indian Association of Amusement Parks and Industries (IAAPI) has written two letters to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking a variety of sops to help sustain, its secretary general Anil Padwal said.

All the amusement parks have been shut since mid-March and even after the lifting-off of the lockdown, are unlikely to see any business as people will continue to avoid public places, he said.

"We earn over 40 per cent of revenues in the March-June season. After the summer vacations, there are rains and a six-month long lull every year," he told PTI.

As per the government orders, none of the body's members are retrenching people at this moment, but there are over 3 lakh indirect jobs that they support as well, he said.

The sops requested by the body include a complete holiday from paying goods and services tax for 12 months, deferment for 6 months in payment of direct or indirect taxes of all statutory dues like advance payment of taxes, PF, ESIC, waiver of custom duties on imported spare parts, reduction in effective rate of interest in loans and a 12-month moratorium on payments to financial institutions.

The body wrote to the prime minister on March 23, ahead of the lockdown and followed it up with another letter on April 3 with other demands.

Economists are fearing that the GDP may contract in FY2021 as well and there are widespread demands for stimulus or aid packages but also admit to grim revenue situation for the government and how it will be able to execute such demands.