Anshu Sarin

CEO

Berggruen Hotels

The reduction of GST rates from earlier 18 per cent to 5 per cent irrespective of air conditioning is a welcome move. It will spur people to eat out and hotels like us will have more people eating lunch and dinner in-house. This rate reduction will also provide a fillip to the industry's growth and result in increased footfalls. GST is a positive tax reform and shall transform the entire industry thereby leading to increased growth. As with any path-breaking futuristic tax reform, there may be few impediments especially in the initial phases with regards to implementation and supply chain. One of the main reasons for input tax credit was to avoid double taxation. Hence, we feel that the removal of input tax benefit should be reconsidered in the larger interest of the industry.