Indebted bills mar Hotel Imphal
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, June 25 2011: Even as several departments have been cooperating with the Government in its plan to upgrade Hotel Imphal to the status of a five star hotel but whatever revenue the hotel is earning for the State is much lesser than the amount of bills indebted to Government departments.

Being the only State-run hotel, Hotel Imphal has been serving both State and Central Government officials in terms of fooding and lodging.

However, no amount of fund is reflected in the budget to run the hotel.

Nevertheless, the hotel staff who have been running the hotel in their own capacity claimed that Hotel Imphal earned Rs 81 lakhs as revenue last year.

Earlier, the hotel offered 47 rooms to its customers but now the number of rooms on offer has been reduced to just 19 due to renovation.

In addition to 37 employees of the State, the Hotel has been hiring 20 employees on daily basis.

The money needed for catering, hotel maintenance and the daily wages of the hired workers are being from the amount earned from renting rooms.

However salaries for the regular employees are being paid by the department.

Though the hotel is being run by the existing staff without any support from the Govt, it managed to earn Rs 81,67,545 last year.

After deducting Rs 50 lakhs for hotel expenditure, another Rs 14 lakhs is now indebted to Govt departments as bills for using the hotel, informed the staff.

They said that such huge bills indebted to several Govt departments including GAD and Home Dept have been causing immense difficulties in running the hotel.

Even though the hotel could earn Rs 81 lakhs, it could add only Rs five lakhs to the State exchequer after deducting Rs two lakhs for running the hotel.

For the dedicated power line provided by the Government, the hotel is paying Rs 80,000 annually as bill.

But sometimes, the power department removed the dedicated line and gave it to other individual/institution, they lamented.

One major factor for the inability of the hotel to generate more revenue for the State is the failure of Government departments to clear indebted bills for years, they added.

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