OTOAI educates members on GST
The Outbound Tour Operators of India (OTOAI) recently conducted a workshop on Goods and Services Tax (GST) for its members in Delhi to apprise them of how the tax will affect their businesses.
OTOAI had invited Aseem Arora, Senior Manager, Tax & Regulatory Services, Ernst & Young, to inform the members about GST.
Speaking at the event, Guldeep Singh Sahni, President, OTOAI, said, “We wanted to introduce the GST system to members who are unaware. We knew it would be a very ugly situation for service providers, both inbound and outbound tour operators, as well as for the tourism industry. It is going to impact us in a big way. Right now we are suffering from 4.5 per cent tax and with 18 per cent of GST, which the government is thinking of implementing, the industry is going to slide downhill. It will have a big impact on business. Thousands of tour operators in India, and lakhs of people in this industry are going to lose their jobs.”
As a pre-emptive measure, OTOAI wants to take the matter to the government. “We want to apprise the government with our issues, so that they consider it before implementing the GST. We are in touch with the Finance Ministry and we will make all efforts necessary to inform them about how difficult it is going to get for us once the GST system comes in place.”
Apart from GST, Sahni said that the members were also apprised about the work done in the past few months. "We are inviting members to come up with issues, which we can take up in future. Also, we informed the members that this year we are going to work more with of our allied members, like the NTOs and DMCs," he said.
Another concern discussed during the meeting was the Turkey educational trip for OTOAI members, scheduled for September, which looks a little uncertain in the light of the recent attacks in the country. “We are still thinking about the Turkey trip for our members. While some are saying we should go ahead with it, others want it to be postponed,” he added.