Vijayawada, Aug 26 (KNN) Andhra Pradesh Hotels Association (APHA) has urged the state government to grant Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) status to hotels and extend support to them in the form of incentives.

The hotel association executive body members held a conference on Wednesday and discussed the problems being faced by the industry in the state.

Speaking to the media persons later, Balakrishna Reddy said the hospitality industry is reeling under a severe crisis due to the pandemic.

“10 to 20 restaurants and hotels are closing down every month due to poor business. The association is demanding the government to grand MSME status to hotels because they are providing livelihood to a large number of workers and promoting the tourism industry,'' he said.

''The government considers hotels as commercial and collects heavy taxes and charges from them,'' he added.

He also demanded that the government to give a waiver on taxes for two years to the hotels so that the hotels can sustain and recover from the losses suffered during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Referring to different types of GST slabs for the hotels, he pointed out that the customers are getting confused with the different slabs.