Hopes riding high on Budget

As spoke to the associations about their initiatives, IATO and OTOAI got back saying that they have met the Ministry of Finance representatives and submitted their proposals for the betterment of the industry. also spoke to other members of the fraternity

The government should reduce service tax and grant industry status to tourism industry. We hope that the government will consider us this year. Last year, the proposed increase in service tax to 12% acted as a dampener for the sector growth as it resulted in spike in costs.

Zakkir Ahmed, President, TAFI For FY-14, Indian airlines reported revenues of approximately US$ 8 billion, on which there were losses of around US$ 1.5 billion. CAPA believes that if ATF is notified as a declared good, it will help bring down taxation levels to around 4% from around 24%.

Satyendra Pandey, Manager, Consulting Research and Advisory for CAPA We are demanding inclusion of hotel accommodation and airconditioned restaurants in the negative list of Service Tax till GST comes into force. We have also urged lowering of the threshold figure of ` 200 crore set for eligibility under Infrastructure Lending List for hotel projects to a reasonable ` 50 crore.

S M Shervani, President, FHRAI While the tourism industry in India is going through a sea change, the expected support from the state and central governments is crucial for the growth of the industry. The infrastructure development needs immediate attention. We hope that government looks into these issues.

Vineet Raina, VP-Outbound, TBi -Trail Blazer Tours India With the new government, we expect a revision of the tax structure. Infrastructure should ramp up and new destinations within India should be developed. The government also needs to build awareness programmes.

Dhananjay S Saliankar, Regional Director, Starwood Sales Organisation (South Asia) We hope the Budget this year will address our demand of easing service tax complexity, and ambiguity in the travel and tourism industry. We also expect a few issues to be acknowledged such as rationalisation and reduction of taxes on ATF, tax concessions to tourism industry.

Sunil Kumar, Vice President, TAAI Tax rationalisation and uniformity across states will play a vital role in creating an attractive value proposition for product Destination India. The industry is also hopeful of prioritisation towards key issues like safety and infrastrucure and swift implementation of the electronic visa authorisation/e-visa.

Madhavan Menon, MD, Thomas Cook (India) ATF should be notified as a ‘declared good’ at the earliest. It is much more prudent to generate tax from final goods and services than a raw material. The taxpayers’ funds can be used for development of the aviation sector as a whole.

Amber Dubey, Partner and India Head of Aerospace and Defense, KPMG With hospitality industry growing, it’s time to fix double-taxation structure like luxury tax & VAT by state governments and service tax by the central government. It would be better to have a GST, which would get rid of a whole lot of other taxes and simplify structures.

David Hopcroft, GM, Pullman Gurgaon Central Park The government needs to sort out the luxury tax issue first. Secondly, the standard of infrastructure in India needs to be upgraded. We also need statewise budgets and targets. This will prompt the suppliers to streamline their business.

Veena Patil, MD, Veena World

Tourism should be given Industry status. There should be a clarity on service tax. There should be a provision for development of infrastructure for airports in Tier-II & Tier-III cities. Also there should be a reduction of tax on ATF for cheaper air fares.

Kuku Kumar, Director- NR, IAAI We would expect the new government to improve the current state of economy. Airport modernization, especially in smaller towns, is required. Most importantly, there is a need to address issues regarding safety of single female travellers within India.

Neelu Singh, COO, Ezeego1.com Like any other Indian citizen, I would ask for developmental budgets for the growth of industry. From the view of travel insurance, we would want to see a proper increase in budget for tourism and the aviation industry. Tax benefits would also form a huge part of this.

KK Mishra, MD & CEO, Tata AIG General Insurance