The National Bank of Serbia has rejected the request of hoteliers to allow them a new loan deferral, said the director of the Association of Hotel and Catering Industry of Serbia, Georgi Genov.
“The NBS sent us a letter instructing us to contact commercial banks for a new loan deferral,” Genov told Beta.
He added that the banks would benefit from that because the interest would be repaid, and the repayment of the loan principal would be postponed, due to which the banks would have increased earnings, and hotels would be able to survive because they now have almost no income.
The request for postponement or delay in repayment (moratorium) is one of several requested by the tourism industry in mid-November, with a reduction in value added tax (VAT) on food from 20 to ten percent, postponement or write-off of taxes and contributions on wages and simplification of procedures reporting seasonal workers.
Twice this year, in packages of state aid to the economy due to the corona virus pandemic, the NBS prescribed measures to postpone loans for a total of five months, and that deadline expired in September, N1 reports.
