The Kerala Houseboat Owners’ Association has sought moratorium on the loans taken by its members for building and operating houseboats saying that the State government’s new liquor policy had hit their business badly and they were finding it difficult to honour their loan repayment obligations.
A memorandum making this request, which the association had addressed to the Chief Minister, was promptly forwarded by the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) to the State Level Bankers’ Committee (SLBC) for action.
The SLBC placed the matter before the bankers in its agenda notes for its quarterly meeting here on Friday as a “suggestion” coming from the office of the Chief Minister.
The notes said that the steering committee of the SLBC had considered the request at its meeting on November 18 and felt that the banks could restructure the loans given to houseboat operators as per the guidelines of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) “based on the viability.”
The memorandum of the association, forwarded to the SLBC by the Chief Minister’s Office, said: “When the activities of all bars except those in five-star hotels are brought to a stop as part of the government’s new liquor policy, it would adversely affect the tourism sector, especially the lake tourism. A majority of the tourists who come to the State use liquor as part of celebrations. Therefore, this policy would serve only to keep the tourists away from this sector [lake tourism]…As a result of this policy, the houseboat owners will lose their capacity to repay the loans they had taken from the banks.”
ClarificationThe Chief Minister’s Office issued a clarification in the evening on Friday saying that it had only forwarded the memorandum received from the houseboat owners’ association to the SLBC. “Only the natural action of forwarding a memorandum received [by the Chief Minister’s Office] has been followed in this instance,” the clarification said.
