GST Insight – Raj Rana, CEO-South Asia, Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group

“We had been preparing several months in advance of the GST rollout cut-off date. Understandably, the two important aspects of GST implementation were technology dependency and training dependency and we have ensured a seamless transition on both those fronts so far. At Carlson Rezidor, we believe that simplification of tax structure and improvement of transparency is a good move. However, the upper bracket of 28% is rather high in comparison to neighbouring countries and puts India in a competitively disadvantageous position as we compete for destination driven business, particularly MICE. Room rates are dynamic and vary with supply and demand, while GST rates are based on published room rates. Further, a hotel’s room inventory is not of a standard type but usually a mix involving higher category rooms such as suites as well. Add to this seasonality of business and overall administration of GST implementation creating more unique challenges. Therefore, perhaps a blended rate such as that implemented for restaurants (18%) would have been a better option.” – Raj Rana, CEO-South Asia, Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group