Katra, Oct.14, 2025: Chief General Manager of J&K Bank Sunit Kumar Gupta on Tuesday held an extensive interaction with representatives of the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PHDCCI), Jammu Region Chapter, and the Hotel & Restaurant Association, Katra (HRAK) to discuss the challenges faced by the hospitality sector and measures under the Rehabilitation Package 2025.
The meeting was attended by the Bank’s Deputy General Manage Lalit Parkash, Cluster Head Amit Bargotra, and Branch Heads from various branches across Reasi district, including Branch Head Main Branch Katra Samaresh Salgotra. From PHDCCI and HRAK, the prominent participants included Mr. Rakesh Wazir, President, Hotel & Restaurant Association Katra and Chairman, PHDCCI Jammu Region; Mr. Shyam Lal Kesar, Chairman HRAK;Kartik Partap Singh, Deputy Regional Director, PHDCCI; K.C. Dogra, Former Chief Medical Officer and Executive Member, HRAK; and HRAK Executive Members Shashi Thakur, Vicky Padha, etc.
While speaking on the occasion, Mr.Gupta reaffirmed the Bank’s commitment to stand by the people and the business fraternity in particular in every eventuality, especially in the wake of recent adversities. He urged entrepreneurs and hoteliers to avail the benefits of the Rehabilitation Package 2025 and announced that turnover-based credit limits for hoteliers, a long-standing demand of HRAK, have been implemented and hoteliers now can avail it. He urged the business fraternity to avail benefits of other schemes of the bank also in addition to existing arrangements and said that staff has been directed to pursue the borrower proactively to help them avail benefits of rehabilitation package announced by the bank.
Mr. Rakesh Wazir, while speaking on the occasion said that hospitality and allied sectors are going through one of their most difficult phases following the Pahalgam attack, the Indo-Pak tensions leading to the suspension of Yatra, continuous rains and landslides, and tragic incidents at Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Ji, Machail Temple, and other parts of the country.
The prolonged suspension of Yatra for more than 25 days has deepened the crisis, resulting in defaults on loan repayments and challenges in paying employee salaries. Mr. Wazir further said that hotel Hospitality sector welcomes the Rehabilitation Package 2025 for providing extended repayment terms and additional working capital support in a big way but urged that the clause requiring loan accounts not to be overdue as on April 21, 2025, be relaxed. “Borrowers with one or two overdue installments should also be covered under the scheme,” he added. He also proposed that bank should extend 15% loans on term loans on the lines of working capital limits in Rehabilation Package.
Mr. Shyam Lal Kesar suggested that units not opting for the rehabilitation package but seeking short-term repayment relaxations should also be considered sympathetically. He further emphasized the need for wider publicity of all J&K Bank schemes to ensure that maximum entrepreneurs benefit from them.