The Horace Association asked the NBS to allow them another moratorium, and the central bank referred them to a direct agreement with commercial banks.
Domestic hotels, about a hundred of them that are still working at the moment, are five to seven percent full, which is perhaps the worst situation they have been in since the beginning of the crisis, which is why the business catering association Hores sent to the National Bank of Serbia a proposal to once again help this sector in order to be able to maintain business.
Namely, they asked the NBS to issue a binding recommendation to commercial banks to offer a moratorium on repayment of all loans to clients whose activities are accommodation and food services, for a period of 18 months. As stated in the explanation of this proposal, “moratoriums on repayment of investment loans and other support would mean that tourist companies manage their debt until they start sustainable business.”
The National Bank of Serbia, which twice this year, in measures of state aid to the economy, prescribed measures to postpone loans for a total of five months, only referred this association to commercial banks, which, it was stated, should resolve this with clients in the future. Horace’s request states that the banks would even benefit from another moratorium, because they would be repaid interest, and the repayment of the loan principal would be delayed, which would “increase their earnings, and hotels would be allowed to survive, because now they have almost no income”.
– In this way, banks would not have to record credit placements as placements with increased risk, which will enable them not to increase the interest rate for clients, and will not have bad placements in their business books. Also, during the moratorium, they would calculate interest according to the conditions previously agreed with the hoteliers, and after the end of the pandemic and the moratorium, hoteliers would continue to repay their credit obligations – it is stated in the request sent to the NBS.
– The National Bank of Serbia did not reject our request, but sent us to commercial banks to discuss individually the possibilities of postponing obligations – Georgi Genov, director of this association, told “Politika”. The NBS’s response to this letter stated that at this moment “the introduction of another moratorium has not been determined, bearing in mind that such a decision depends on numerous factors.”
The National Bank reminds that since the beginning of the health crisis, numerous measures have been taken to overcome financial difficulties, as well as to continuously monitor the situation.
Domestic hoteliers, pressured by the current, but also by the obligations that arrive from January next year, without tourists and work, as they say, do not know what awaits them, or whether the new moratorium would solve or just postpone the problems.
Vladimir Todorovic, director of “Todors Hotel Belgrade”, a company that includes the hotel “Belgrade Art” and the restaurant “My Hat”, says for Politika that the moratorium is a good thing in the short term, but also the postponement of “death” for a longer period.
– The situation is uncertain, there is no work, and obligations must be paid. A moratorium would mean something to those who have smaller debts, it would also mean something to others, but after the delay, the accumulated installments must be paid. If not from work, then with a loan, and banks are finding it increasingly difficult to approve them due to risk and uncertainty. They are looking for more and more security funds, which is why I think that liquidity loans from the Development Fund were a great solution, but it is going slowly – says Todorovic.
Asked what else could be done in time for the state’s help to have greater effects, he said that it might have been better to allocate the funds that the state had at its disposal at that time.
– Why give the minimum to everyone, even to those who made record salaries during this crisis, who did not have problems with lack of work? Maybe we should have thought in that direction – our interlocutor concludes and adds that he believes that many companies will not survive, as well as that the state could think about next year better tax policy, as well as a different calculation of costs such as electricity, heating…
The request for postponement or delay in loan repayment, let us remind you, is one of several proposals requested by the tourism industry in mid-November, with a reduction of value added tax (VAT) on food from 20 to ten percent, postponement or write-off of taxes and contributions on salaries and simplifying the registration procedure for seasonal workers, Politika reports.
