IATO is hugely disappointed that its request for rationalising GST and cascading impact it causes on the tourism industry was not even discussed in the GST Council meeting held on 28th May 2021.
Though there is no substitute for resumption of tourism activity which seems far off given the second wave of pandemic, the apex tourism national body hoped that the government and GST council would sympathise and do its bit and provide succour by lowering the stiff GST which is imposed on Tourism industry.
According to Rajiv Mehra, President IATO, “Tourism , more particularly the inbound one is the worst affected with zero inbound tourism business in the last 14 months and further we see no hopes of inbound tourism to start soon. In a scenario like this we were hopeful that our request would be favourably considered in the GST council meeting, but what was disappointing was that it was not even discussed.”
It is more important to reduce taxes on the tourism industry as Indian tourism stakeholders are going to face very tough competition from our neighbouring countries as they will be coming out with lucrative offers to attract international tourists to their countries. Until and unless we reduce taxes on the tourism products, we will not be able to compete with South Asian and other neighbouring countries as tax on tourism in these countries is very low as compared to our country.
However, IATO is still hopeful that some relief will be favourably considered in the second stimulus package to be announced by the Ministry of Finance considering the crisis this industry is facing. However, no one from the Ministry of Finance or GST Council has called or spoken with IATO and how they have survived so far and what they intend to do to revive their business.
