President Rod Devlin was linked in via teleconference to a meeting that took place in Canberra, and put forward that the next business activity statement (BAS) installment could be scrapped to alleviate pressure.

"We were able to suggest to the Prime Minister, the Treasurer and the Small Business Minister they could look at writing off the obligation for business affected by these fires to have to pay the ATO the October to December installment that's due on February 28," he said.

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"Most businesses would have those funds sitting in an account to pay before February 28, and if the government released the obligation on small businesses ... they could immediately have access to those funds."

Mr Devlin, who was among about 120 participants in the round-table, said shires like Indigo that didn't suffer physical fire damage experienced indirect impacts.

"We received multiple warnings from emergency services for people to evacuate," he said.

"We understand that emergency services have to do their job, but one of the resulting implications was in places such as Beechworth which are heavily reliant on tourism, the vast majority of tourists left."

Nearly 200 operators have completed a Tourism North East business survey about the impacts and more than half of those indicated a 100 per cent loss of income for the period of January 3 to January 9.

The other half indicated a loss greater than 50 per cent.

"We are encouraging people to come back to these areas, but we're also advising them to download the Vic Emergency app and make themselves aware of the changing environment," Mr Devlin said

"People are here to serve tourists and we want to see them come - we're also cautious they do so with a safety-first approach."

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