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Tour operators seeks govt support for survival and revival
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SME Times News Bureau | 13 Apr, 2021
India's travel and tourism industry has once again urged the government
to consider taking multiple steps to ease the pressure on the sector and
help it tide over the crisis as the surge in Covid infections and
re-imposition of partial travel restrictions in some major states
threatens its survival.
The Indian Association of Tour Operators
(IATO), the apex body of inbound tour operators, has urged the
government to extend the scope of air bubble arrangements that India is
having with different countries for flight operations to include
movement of India-destined leisure travellers as well. This, it feels,
will help the industry get some overseas tourist traffic.
India
has air bubble arrangements with some countries like Sri Lanka, and as
per the understanding, they are allowing Indian tourists to visit their
country. IATO has said that the government could permit similar
arrangements for tourists from Sri Lanka and other countries with which
India has air bubble arrangement.
Besides, it has also requested
the government to draw a timetable as per which dates for opening of
visas, including e-visas, and resumption of international flights can be
announced. Such a move will allow the Indian tour operators to sound
their counterparts abroad in advance and bookings could be made
likewise, it said.
Further countries are opening up for travel
for those fully vaccinated and India can adopt the same model, the IATO
added in its submission to the government.
The pandemic has hit
all the sectors of the economy hard but the hardest hit is the tourism
sector, especially the inbound one, which is almost at zilch level since
last one year.
Among the financial incentive, the IATO has urged
abolishment of levy of tax collection at source (TCS) on foreign
tourists as they are not liable to pay income tax in India and therefore
cannot claim refund as they don't have a PAN number.
IATO
President Rajiv Mehra said: "We have made multiple representations to
the government, bringing to their notice that the objective of the TCS
levy was to bring Indians in the tax net and it was not meant for taxing
international tourists and as a result we are losing business to
neighbouring countries like Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and other countries
where no such levy is charged."
IATO has also requested the
government to urgently announce Service Export Incentive Scheme (SEIS)
for financial year 2019-20 which has been delayed by almost one year
now. Announcing this will lead to some cash flow for tour operators
which is critical for their survival.
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Customs Exchange Rates |
Currency |
Import |
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US Dollar
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84.65 |
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75.65 |
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As on 13 Aug, 2022 |
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