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ARCHIVED - Hostemur fears that Murcia could lose a third of its bars and restaurants following enforced closures
The hostelries association claims again that it is being victimized as bars close in most of the Region
The forced closure of all bars and restaurants in 36 of the 45 municipalities of the Region of Murcia, which was announced by the regional government on Monday in an effort to halt the upward trend in the number of new coronavirus cases being reported, could lead to the permanent closure of 30 per cent of all such establishments.
This is the pessimistic warning issued by Hostemur, the organization representing businesses in the Murcia hostelries sector, whose president Jesús Jiménez laments the fact in his view the government appears to think that the only activity which contributes to the spread of the pandemic is that of bars and restaurants. Sr Jiménez points out that students are doing exams at universities, school classrooms are full and public transport is as busy as ever, while Hostemur members in most of the Region face another indefinite period of forced inactivity.
The regional health authority maintains that 76% of all contagions originate with a combination of leisure activities such as meeting friends in a bar, and are then taken home and shared with family members, the case increase highest amongst those in the 17-34 age group. Cases diagnosed this week have been the highest since the pandemic began following relaxed restrictions during the festive period.
It is this situation, allied with the imposition of a ban on travelling into and out of the 36 municipalities affected, which leads Hostemur to forecast that by the end of the summer the number of operative bars and restaurants in Murcia will have fallen by around a third since the start of the pandemic. Already the organization reports that the figure has dropped by 15 per cent, and the effects of this latest closure have been exacerbated by the suddenness of the lockdown, which will lead to perishable stock having to be disposed of.
Describing the closure as “incomprehensible”, Jesús Jiménez adds that if it is necessary to close their doors the members of Hostemur will do so, but that they should be exempted from all payments including VAT, rent and social security while the measure remains in place. After restrictions on opening hours and other aspects of the sector over the festive season, when other pandemic measures were relaxed, he believes that the 258 million euros supplied to the regional government in order to allow economic re-building in Murcia could be used to design a plan to rescue the hostelries sector.
Many other sectors are of course, affected equally badly by the pandemic, but the Spanish Government maintains that cash hand-outs to every business affected by the pandemic is an impossibility given the number of businesses in the country without burdening taxpayers with an enormous bill afterwards, and although schemes are in place to loan money at cheap rates to businesses, and legislation has been passed to enforce rent reductions for affected businesses, in most cases the initiatives are at local and regional level.
Money has been pledged to the hostelry sector by the regional government relating to the previous enforced closures from the funds allocated to the region, but most of the initiatives, such as reducing business rates, waiving rubbish charges etc are being undertaken by local councils.
The ERTE scheme in operation allows businesses to furlough workers on a temporary basis and although provisional agreement has been reached to extend the scheme past the end of January and maintain it until May, there is still disagreement between the national government, unions and business associations about the conditions of the extension as the government maintains that it will not support businesses by paying wages for staff who are subsequently made permanently redundant after the scheme ends; the scheme, they say, is there to help businesses remain in business after the pandemic and support them so they can maintain staff, not so that shedding staff can be delayed.
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