FAITH, the policy federation of all national associations representing India’s entire tourism, travel, and hospitality industry (ADTOI, ATOAI, FHRAI, HAI, IATO, ICPB, IHHA, ITTA, TAAI, TAFI), has thanked the FM for finally acknowledging the industry’s deep pain and stress after almost five quarters and for including it in structured relief measures announcements.
The fee waiver on 5 lakh tourist e-visas has been extended as a demand stimulus. They have urged that this fee waiver be prolonged until at least the pre-pandemic statistics of tourist arrivals are reached, or until 2024 without any end-use restrictions on tourists because the inbound tourism business must fully recover from the moment it restarts.
They claim that the fees skipped will be a nominal loss of perhaps another 100 crores, but that this is a little investment in reviving inbound tourism, which contributed more than 2 lakh crores in the year prior to the pandemic. This will convey a powerful message of confidence-building to the rest of the globe, which is eager to travel once more.
Reclassification of financial assistance: The development of financial assistance that will be administered by MoT is a positive move. There have been essentially no cash flows in the last 15 months, and there is no propensity to pay interest. Because NCGLT has already guaranteed the financial support, it is requested that it be converted to a gift or, if not, rendered interest-free.
Every ounce of aid counts. They have also advised raising the amount of financial help because this industry has been without cash flows and has had to pay statutory liabilities and operating expenses. Alternatively, because the travel sector will be restrained for the foreseeable future due to pandemic in some source markets, this relief payout may be repeated in the next quarter.
TCS on outward travel should be removed since it has rendered Indian tours and travel intermediates uncompetitive. TCS was introduced in October FY 20 and has made Indian tours and travel intermediaries uncompetitive. They must now deduct tax at source in addition to the GST.
This renders bookings through Indian travel brokers uncompetitive compared to those made by companies headquartered outside of India, who do not levy any such fees on either Indian or international travellers.
The travel transactional business will relocate outside of Indian jurisdictions as a result of this. As and when travel resumes, this will act as an artificial impediment to our travel intermediates’ recovery from the pandemic.
The extra drawback is that if our travel intermediaries’ outbound business suffers, our inbound business to India would suffer as well.
SEIS SEIS scrips dues against tourist foreign exchange gained for 2019-20 are still overdue, causing severe anguish because that money was spent on boosting tourism demand for India.
It is requested that these SEIS fees be credited as soon as possible in order for tourist, travel, and hospitality businesses to pay their expenses and provide for their employees.
Waiver of Statutory Dues: Despite the lack of funds, the state and federal governments, as well as other regulatory organizations, have statutory responsibilities and compliance obligations that must be met.
These include a variety of duties, taxes, cess, or license fees, such as electricity and water, property taxes, excise duties, state professional taxes, transportation taxes, parking cess, insurance premiums, provident fund, ESI contribution, and any penalties imposed on hotels, travel agents, tour operators, restaurants, tourist transporters, or any other form of tourism travel and hospitality service.
All state governments and corresponding federal government departments are asked to waive these set taxes and compliances during the duration of the pandemic. Alternatively, a corpus with the Ministry of Tourism might be established to fulfill these monthly responsibilities and discharge them on behalf of tourism travel and hospitality enterprises.
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