New Delhi, January 31, 2018: Globally, a majority of the tourism countries levy a tax on hospitality which is an average 10 per cent lower than the GST here. Our hope is that the upcoming Union Budget reduces this gap at least between our neighbouring tourism countries and us. Other than this, presently we have a slab-wise GST rates of 0, 12, 18 and 28 per cents based on the published tariffs for a room. We request that the Government dissolves this structure of tiered GST rates and makes it a uniform rate of maybe, 12 per cent.
The Govt. has been making efforts towards the promotion of tourism and hospitality in the country and while this is evident, there is much room for improvement in the tourism infrastructure. The budget should allocate dedicated funds to facilitate connectivity by air and roads to the tier 2 and tier 3 cities. We realize this need well as many of our hotel properties are located in these cities and towns. Ease of access with good connectivity to these places will definitely increase the tourist foot-falls and even generate employment in the sector.
Lastly, while the GST is a landmark tax reform and we acknowledge that the Govt. has been working towards fine tuning the on-ground nuances; further simplification will be much appreciated.
The Govt. has in-principal agreed to work towards the ease of doing business and also may have implemented certain aspects of it, but the hotel industry has not yet seen any tangible benefits. Besides the implementation is not uniform across all States and the regulatory processes create hurdles in both staring and operating a hotel. The introduction and implementation of the Single Window Clearance for hospitality should help reduce the turnaround times for obtaining permissions, and licences among other mandated authorizations. The Single Window Clearance for hospitality could prove to be a boon to the sector.
Corporate Comm India(CCI Newswire)
