The Exhibition Industry is one of the most badly hit sectors globally due to the current lockdown being imposed across the countries to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Trade Fair Organisers are likely to get further impacted in latter half of the year as prospective exhibitors are likely to go through a downturn.
Considering the constraints and hardship being faced by the third party fair organisers in this difficult time, ITPO, the nodal trade fair organisation of the Government of India under Ministry of Commerce and Industry, announced relief package/ steps to the third party organisers who organizes exhibitions in Pragati Maidan. These steps enable trade and industry to continue their participation in these difficult times, which in turn help the event to survive and also participate industry to grow. The revised policy will be applicable to all the third party fairs to be organised in Pragati Maidan from 01 April, 2020 to 31 March, 2021. The relaxations provided to the trade fair organisations are as under :-
- ITPO will not levy any penalty for cancellation/ re-schedulement/ reduction in space booked by third party fair organisers upto March, 2021, provided the request is received at least 90 days before the scheduled date of the event or date of notification of this order, whichever is later. ITPO will issue credit note to third party fair organizer, which can be adjusted in their future event(s).
- ITPO will give discount of 20% in the published/approved rentals to the third party fair organizers for the events booked/to be booked or re-scheduled/to be re-scheduled during the same business periods up to March 31, 2021.
- The re-scheduled event in FY 2020-21 will need to pay the originally booked rentals or the published/approved rentals of the relevant business period, whichever is lower. In case the organiser intends to shift/ re-schedule the event from lean to semi-peak/peak or semi-peak to peak or vice-versa, such a request should come at least 90 days before the scheduled date of the event or date of notification of this order, whichever is later. (In case of re-scheduled inter business periods, the general benefit of 20% rebate will not be applicable).
- The present payment plans for ITPO rentals i.e. “Eight Months before start of tenancy” has been relaxed and revised as “Four Months before start of tenancy”.
- The delayed penalty, if any, for the period 01-02-2020 to 30-06-2020 will not be charged.
The above reliefs/ relaxations will instill confidence in the fair organizers and help revive the exhibition industry amid concerns of slowing growth of exhibition industry. ITPO has taken this altruistic steps despite hindering its own financial health but this is the need of the hour and ITPO will make all efforts to support exhibition industry to survive and thrive.
