Pablo Novillo
03/24/2021 12:09 PM
Clarín.com
Cities
Updated 03/24/2021 12:12 PM
No foreign tourists and very few from abroad, no international congresses or events, with empty bars and restaurants.
The situation of
Buenos Aires hotels
is critical and there are many that the coronavirus pandemic closed forever.
Almost like a lifesaver, the Buenos Aires Legislature will
exempt them from paying the ABL
for six months.
Thus raises a bill promoted by the Buenos Aires Executive and presented by the legislator Sol Méndez (Let's Go Together), which will probably be accompanied by several opposition deputies, given the crisis that the sector is experiencing.
It is, in fact, a measure that was
requested by the businessmen
of the sector.
According to that text, to which
Clarín
agreed
, hotels, temporary shelters, lodgings, pensions and all establishments in the sector will not pay the monthly ABL between April and September.
The hotels on Avenida de Mayo, among the most affected.
Photo: Lucia Merle.
In the Buenosairean Executive they calculate that the exemption to the hotels will mean a
fiscal cost of 400 million pesos
in the year.
To access the exemption, hoteliers must request an authorization from the Government Administration of Public Revenues.
This process will be enabled after the law is promulgated, for which there are at least two weeks left.
In addition, the hotels will have benefits to refinance their tax debts.
From February to June, the Buenos Aires government enabled a moratorium on ABL and Patents, with installment payments and interest deductions.
That plan runs for any resident of the City, but with debts that cannot exceed $ 1,500,000.
With a modification that would also be approved this Thursday, hotels would be allowed to include debts of
up to $ 18,000,000
in that moratorium
.
The project states that these exceptions are necessary because the pandemic and the quarantine caused "an abrupt decrease in the circulation and arrival of tourists to the City, so the impact on the economic activity of the sector entails the need to take relief measures" .
The little activity that exists in the hotels has to be done with protocols that made operating costs more expensive.
Photo: Rafael Mario Quinteros.
Look also
Sad postcards of the center of Buenos Aires transformed into a desolate landscape due to the lack of tourists and the economic crisis
Before the pandemic, there was a tax incentive program in the City for those establishments that expanded their accommodation capacity, because tourism had been growing at a good pace and expectations were very positive.
The contrast with the current situation is total.
According to the City's Tourism Board, there are
1,116 hotels
in Buenos Aires
.
But in the Association of Hotels, Restaurants, Confectioneries and Cafes (AHRCC) they assure that 80% of these establishments are closed, and for that reason they emphasize that the exemption of the ABL is "fundamental".
"The current hotel occupancy in Caba is between 5% and 8%. To be viable
, more than 70% is needed
," summarized Ariel Amoroso, the president of the AHRCC.
During these months, the sector had had at least some activity with mild patients who were referred to about 50 hotels for preventive isolation.
But, although these establishments received 73,889 people during the pandemic, today the occupancy is much lower:
there are 369 lodged, in only 5 hotels
.
In addition, the hotels that do receive the very few tourists who moved in these months had
higher operating costs
, since the sanitary protocols forced to increase the cleaning of the facilities and reduce income such as that which the bars and restaurants of the establishments can provide.
The outlook doesn't look any better.
Fearing a second wave, the national government not only reinforced the closure of borders but also suspended dozens of flights and insists that circulation between provinces also be reduced.
PN
