Despite the Centre announcing tourism as one of the pillars for growth, it failed to give hospitality any notable relief and stimulus for growth in the Budget 2014-15, according to Mandeep Lamba, Managing Director-India, JLL Hotels & Hospitality.

Despite its 6.6 per cent contribution to the GDP and the fact that it created close to 40 million jobs in 2012-13, the Indian hospitality sector continues to be a story of neglect from our policy makers, he pointed out.

Some of the points that were ignored in the Budget include incentives in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities to make hotel investments there reasonably attractive; focus on better borrowing terms through the infrastructure lending route; relaxed ECB norms and rationalisation of taxes.

“The sector needs to be spared from double taxation through service and luxury tax/VAT at the state and centre levels,” he said.

However, according to Lamba, the positives include plans for long-term growth by way of developing India’s pilgrimage and heritage tourism circuits; development of a world-class convention centre in Goa through PPP route; time-bound implementation of e-visas in nine airports; improvement and modernisation of railways; proposed new airports of international standards; and, thrust on improved road connectivity.

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