This is in continuation to my previous letter to bring your kind attention to the disruption which has been caused by the outbreak of novel coronavirus (Covid-19) on the car rental industry and the consequences which are yet to come in the forthcoming months.
Though Bahrain as a nation has been facing the wrath of Covid-19 like a true warrior at government and individual levels and In sha Allah by the mercy and grace of Allah, we will come out of it triumphant. The Bahrain government has taken extensive measures to curtail the impact of this invisible opponent (Covid-19) on the economy as well as on the health of individuals.
I would like to draw the attention of Central Bank of Bahrain towards some of the issues which car rental companies are facing and which my company has faced in the past few months.
1. A norm in this industry is to purchase vehicles on credit from either dealers or from the banks on monthly instalments.
2. During this period of time when the business is all-time low, it has become difficult to meet the monthly liabilities.
3. The government has instructed the financial institutes to defer the instalments pertaining to the months of March to August.
4. One of the financial institutes have been insisting on settling the dues for this difficult period and has been threatening to file a lawsuit if not settled
5. Based on many rounds of negotiations with them with different officials, they are still adamant about their stance.
6. They are refusing to show any leniency during this time period which is not the fault of any single individual.
I assume the principally agreed SOPs have been stuck and compromised at the bureaucracy. At this time when we all need the support of each other to survive and to pass this toughest period in our lives, some officials have become cold hearted.
It gives me immense pain to write this letter to plead to the higher officials specially CBB to take corrective measures on this matter as it is a pivotal issue and if not solved in the nick of time can cause severe going concern issues for car rental operators.
M A Barlas
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