The Bhutanese Leading the way.
The 4% loan interest subsidy for hotels under the Reinvigoration Fund (RGF) of the Economic Stimulus Plan (ESP) has been approved by the ESP Steering Committee.
The ESP Secretariat is now working on presenting it to the Cabinet for final approval.
The Royal Monetary Authority (RMA) had initially given until September 2025 to take one of the seven options to restructure loans but this was extended for hotels till December 2025.
Hotels were getting worried that the deferral will end in December and the interest subsidy is yet to be approved.
A source in the Ministry of Industry Commerce and Employment (MoICE) said that it is because the MoICE is working with RMA that a deferral was given till December and if it goes into January 2026 then it can be further extended.
The source said that the RGF interest subsidy of 4% will not be available for all hotels and it will depend on how viable the proposals are.
The loan subsidy is also initially to be given for one year only. There will be certain other criteria too.
If a hotel gets this facility, then if the hotel has a 12% loan, then they can use the 4% subsidy to pay only 8% on their loan for a year.
The hotel industry had earlier put up a letter to MoICE on the issue.
Hotels have largely been unable to recover after the pandemic as they say they need more numbers of tourists.
The 4% subsidy is seen as a measure to help the industry in the short term.
