Community centres lose Tk 100cr a month for closure: Owners

Young brides and grooms have not been tying the knots for more than a year across the country as the community centres and convention halls have been shut amid Covid-19 pandemic.

centres, the most sought-out places across the country to organise wedding ceremonies, receptions and other social gatherings have been incurring around Tk 100 crore in revenue loss each month due to Coronavirus-inflicted lockdown.

The organisation of four thousand community centres and convention halls — the Bangladesh Community Centre Convention Hall and Catering Association — demanded that the centres be reopened complying with Coronavirus-driven health regulations to recover part of the losses.

Their voices were echoed at a press conference at the National Press Club on Sunday.

BCCA President Shah Zakir Hossain said some 20 lakh people who depend directly and indirectly on the social functions at those facilities have been badly affected by such closures.

“Currently, due to the closure of social events in the Covid-19 pandemic, 4,000 organisations are incurring a loss of around Tk 100 crore a month,” Zakir Hossain said.

He said the decorators of this city are incurring a loss of another Tk 15-20 crore as they have been sitting idle for more than a year now.

BCCA President said some 5 lakh actively involved people have lost their monthly income and have been living an inhumane life.

“This has been a catastrophic situation for us and our families,” he added.

Zakir Hossain explained that forward and backward linkage manpower, such as, photographers, videographers, decorator, logistics people, flower shops, stage makers and cleaning workers have all gone unemployed because of the lockdown.

He said half of the seats in a centre could be kept vacant and social distancing rules could be strictly maintained after reopening of the facilities.

The journalists were told that all events booked throughout the year had been cancelled.

“It is almost impossible and challenging for all the traders to turn around in the face of such a huge loss,” Zakir Hossain said.

According to the BCCA, there are about 400 public-private community centres and convention halls in the capital. There are about four thousand such institutions across the country.

Demanding the reopening of the community centres, BCCA President said, “Even though the community centres are closed, they have to pay rent, income tax, holding tax, VAT, salary for the stuff, electricity bill, WASA bills, gas bill and so on.”

He said each community centre is built on an area of at least 5,000 to 30,000 square feet. Therefore, serving 100 to 200 people will not be that tough, maintaining health rules.

BCCA urged the government to reopen these centres and halls on humanitarian grounds.