‘Tour operators have little to rejoice’

The Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO) is upset over neglect of tourism sector in the Budget 2013.

Tour operators have little to rejoice about the Budget outcome, said Subhash Goyal, President, Indian Association of Tour Operators, and Chairman, STIC Travel Group.

“We expected that the Budget will bring some relief to our mounting woes by reducing the service tax as this is the only one special request we have been making since the last few years. But successive governments had only ensured that tourism sector is not given any relief,” he said.

Tour operators feel that that taxation has made India cost-prohibitive. Tourism sector is estimated to contribute more than 6 per cent to the GDP and more than 9 per cent to employment.

“Current service tax level exacerbated by high fuel price and swine flu threat will further push down the demand for India holidays. In the Budget, the inclusion of all AC restaurants and cafes of more than 2,000 square feet to pay service tax is also adding to the continued woes,” Goyal added.

“Similarly, increase in import duty on high-end motor vehicles from 75 per cent to 100 per cent is also going to impact negatively the tourism industry as for easy movement of tourists, we require comfortable cars, especially when in India there is a constant effort to improve the highways and which can boost surface tourism in a big way,’’ Goyal said.

“However, in this Budget there is some higher plan allocation for infrastructure (roads, hospitals, etc.) which will bring benefits to tourism also as tourism is lacking growth mainly because of lack of basic infrastructure in India. But we have to see how far all these schemes are implemented by the Indian Government,” he said.

nivedita.ganguly@thehindu.co.in

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