FAITH, a policy federation of all national associations representing the tourism, travel and hospitality industry in India, has appealed to the government to implement a five-step, comprehensive support programme to recover from stress.
It had asked for the extension of E-tourist visa fee till at least the pre-pandemic figures of tourist arrivals is reached or till 2024 without any end use restrictions on tourists.
“The fees foregone will be a notional loss of perhaps an additional ₹100 crore which is a minor investment in restarting the inbound tourism that contributed to more than ₹2 lakh crore in the pre-pandemic year. This will send a strong message of confidence building measure,” FAITH said in a statement.
Seeking a reclassification of the financial support, it has requested that the support be converted to a grant or if not, it be made interest free.
“Since this industry has been without cash flows and having to pay statutory liabilities and operating expenses it should get double the amount of financial support,” it said.
It has sought removal of Tax Collected at Source (TCS) on outbound travel which was introduced in October FY 20. “TCS has made Indian tours and travel intermediaries uncompetitive. In addition of Goods & Services Tax (GST), now they are liable to deduct tax at source. This makes booking from Indian travel intermediaries uncompetitive. This will cause the travel transactional business to shift to outside of Indian jurisdictions. As and when travel will restart, this will become like an artificial barrier on our travel intermediaries as they look to recover from the pandemic,” it said.
FAITH has urged the government to credit the Service Export from India Scheme (SEIS) dues for 2019-20 immediately.
“SEIS scrip dues against tourism foreign exchange earned for 2019-20 is still outstanding which is creating significant distress as that money was spent in creating tourism demand for India,” it said.
Crediting the dues immediately will enable tourism, travel & hospitality companies to meet their expenses and to take care of their employees, it added.
Finally it has sought waiver of statutory dues as statutory liabilities & compliance liabilities at both state and central Government level & other regulatory bodies will still need to be met despite no revenue.
“It is requested that all State governments and the respective Central Government Ministries to waive fixed levies and compliances till the period of the pandemic. Alternatively, a corpus with Ministry of Tourism be set up to meet these monthly liabilities of tourism travel and hospitality companies to discharge them on their behalf,” it said.
