Fifty million people will lose their jobs in the tourism sector if the government does not issue a relief package, industry bodies told the Centre during a virtual conference on Saturday.
Saturday’s meeting follows the industry bodies’ earlier talks with the tourism ministry as well as a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, asking for financial interventions.
Presidents of 10 associations of the tourism and hospitality industry, under the banner of the Federation of Associations in Indian Tourism and Hospitality (FAITH), held the virtual meeting with Yogendra Tripathi, the secretary of the tourism ministry, over the National e-Governance Division (NeGD) grid system.
Tripathi said the Indian tourism industry will be one of the worst-hit by the coronavirus pandemic across all the sectors, as per one of the attendees.
The industry bodies reiterated their earlier demands in the face of a grinding halt of the domestic as well as the international tourism industry due to the coronavirus pandemic.
This time, they presented a 20-point agenda.
{{/usCountry}}This time, they presented a 20-point agenda.
{{/usCountry}}Among the demands and their respective statuses that were discussed were a complete Goods and Services Tax (GST) and income tax holiday for tourism, travel and hospitality industry for a year, a moratorium on repayment of EMIs of principal and interest for term loans for 12 months, the enhancement of working capital limits at interest-free rates, and a support fund for salaries and establishment costs.
The associations also demanded that provident fund (PF) contributions and Employees’ State Insurance (ESI) be waived off for a year and that GST liability, advance tax, custom duties, excise duties, VAT, and TDS be deferred for a year.
Another demand was that cancellations and advances of travel agents and tour operators from airlines be refunded and that the national tourism disaster management task force works on a standard tourism survival package across states.
A rollback of the tax collected at source (TCS) introduced in the 2020-21 budget, reduction of interstate tax, reduction in credit card charges, no fixed costs on power tariffs, water or other utilities, deferment of property tax were some of their other demands.
The industry has also suggested that Indians be given a tax benefit on the lines of Leave Travel Allowance (LTA) to boost the sector.
Subhash Goyal of FAITH said among the relief measures that were given to the industry till now are the three-month moratorium on EMIs and the directive by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) that working capital limits be reevaluated by banks.
In addition to that, the finance and labour ministries have waived off PF contributions for three months for organisations with less than 100 employees where 90% of the workforce earns below Rs 15,000 per month and is contributed for by the government.
Apart from that, the announcement by the finance ministry that filing of income tax returns will be deferred for three months for companies earning up to Rs 5 crore. In the case of VAT and other taxes, some states have given partial reliefs.
“India needs to give a relief package like the United States and the United Kingdom. The tourism ministry is the first to be affected and the last to recover,” FAITH’s Goyal said.