Wedding hall owners to not refund booking amount

Nashik/ Kolhapur : The owners of

wedding halls

and lawns in Nashik and Kolhapur have decided not to refund the booking amount given by the clients for wedding and other functions, which have been cancelled due to the lockdown.

Nashik Mangal Karyalay, Lawns and

Hall Association

has decided to give a credit note to the clients which can be encashed till June 2022 or get the earliest date post-Diwali for the functions which has been cancelled. The association comprising wedding hall owners in Kolhapur will give alternative dates to the clients for the function.

Sunil Chopada, the secretary of the Nashik Mangal Karyalay, Lawns and Hall Association, said that the business days of these halls and lawns were limited to 60 of the 365 days in a year and the property has to be maintained at all times.

“We mainly earn from January to June during which most of the ceremonies are held. But this year, the celebrations were called off from February. There is hardly anything in our accounts that can help us in maintenance, provide employment and clear the government taxes for the next entire year,” Chopada said.

Sandeep Kakad, the executive president of the association, said the electricity charges are applied at commercial rates and since this year there was no business at all.

“We had sought permission from the government to allow the programmes to be held in the presence of 50 people at least, but that was been rejected. The only option left is to use the funds available with us till the business resumes,” Kakad said.

“We conducted an in-house wedding in the presence of five people from each family and the purpose of booking the lawns is over. However, I am ready to wait for maximum one year for the refund considering the current situation,” said Yogesh Patil, a Nashik citizen..

Vivek Pathak, who has conducted the threading ceremony of his sons in a family programme without inviting his friends and relatives, said that there will be no function soon so money should be refunded.

Meanwhile in Kolhapur, some people are planning to postpone the functions to Diwali and some are conducting the function with a limited number of people, wanting to cancel the booking of halls, lawns and hotels.

An owner of a wedding hall, located in Tarabai park area, said, “We generate revenue working for three months from March to May. From that, we have to pay the power bills, water bills and other expenses for the year.”

“Our halls were booked till end of May and people had deposited the booking amount. Now, they are cancelling the bookings and demanding their deposits back,” he said.

“Our association has decided that instead of returning their deposit amount, we will give them an alternative date for conducting the ceremony.” he said.

Sanjay Pawar, a resident of Uchgaon ,whose niece was supposed to get married in the first week of May, said, “ We are now planning to conduct the wedding in presence of a minimum number of people. However, the wedding halls are not returning our booking amount ,” he said.