Disinvestment in ITDC hotels to affect employees

Shubhadeep Choudhury

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 5

The 31-member department-related parliamentary standing committee on transport, tourism and culture, headed by BJP Rajya Sabha member TG Venkatesh, has asked the India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) to undertake detailed manpower study in all its units so that deployment of human resources could be rationalised.

According to Tourism Ministry, which controls the ITDC, nine hotels run by the corporation had been so far handed over to the respective state governments, where these were located, since the divestment of the ITDC hotels started in 2015.

The process of manpower rationalisation was carried out for the ITDC’s executives and non-executives of the corporate office in 2018. Further, for Hotel Catering Establishment (HCE) units, which had been disinvested, the sanctioned strength was abolished and the manpower that had not opted for VRS were posted in remaining properties of ITDC, and their posts were treated as supernumerary (excess).

The manpower rationalisation of the ITDC’s remaining hotel units, and those against supernumerary posts, has been held up as the ITDC is still undergoing the process of disinvestment. Further exercises will be taken up after completion of disinvestment process of the ITDC hotel units and adoption of new business development plan for the ITDC, the Ministry has informed the committee.

According to the parliamentary committee report presented in Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, no major renovation of the ITDC properties was also being undertaken in view of the government policy of withdrawing from the business.

Plans for renovation and upgradation of facilities were made for Ashok Hotel and Samrat Hotel in New Delhi, and Taj Restaurant in Agra for the current financial year (2020-21).

However, with the recent decision of Central Government to manage Ashok Hotel in the PPP (public private partnership) mode, the proposal for renovation of Ashok has been abandoned.

Work of up-gradation of Taj Restaurant, Agra, and renovation of rooms and lobby area of Hotel Samrat, however, has been taken up and in progress right now.

The ITDC registered net profit of Rs 42.15 crore in 2018-19, a significant jump over the profit of Rs 17.71 crore made by it in the previous financial year.

Return on Equity (RoE) is dependent on the profit and financial efficiency.

According to the Tourism Ministry’s own admission, ITDC’s RoE — Rs 5.38 in 2018-19, an improvement over Rs 3.13 in FY 2017-18 — is comparable to many private hotels.

However, government wants to transform the ITDC from being a hotel-centric corporation to a corporation offering one stop solution for all travel, tourism and hospitality needs.