ETW Staff – Mumbai
The Union Budget 2015-16 has considerably focused on the tourism sector. The successful Visa on Arrival Scheme which was introduced a year back for 43 countries will be increased to 150 countries in a phased manner. Focus on development of World Heritage Sites – churches and convents of old Goa, Hampi, Elephanta caves, Leh palace, Varanasi temple town, Jallianwala Bagh etc to be developed to make them more tourist-friendly. Let’s have a look at what the tourism industry has to say about this Budget.
Subhash Goyal, president, IATO said, “Even though the finance minister Arun Jaitley has announced Tourist Visa on Arrival for 150 countries, but by the time this is done, people who are trying to sabotage the PM’s vision, have created a lot of damage to the growth of tourism by introducing biometrics for getting an Indian visa in many countries. So all efforts of the government are going down the drain. Even countries like Israel who have the maximum threat of terrorism, do not have biometric. We looked at the government to put forth a definitive time line for a nationwide roll out of GST. The tax regime should help us set off Service Tax giving a significant boost to the tourism industry and we are happy that GST will be introduced by April next year.”
Harmandeep Singh Anand, hon secretary general, TAAI said, “The Union Budget 2015-16 has not been a good Budget for the travel agents. We were already expecting the taxes to go up, but the new Swachh Bharat Tax of two per cent, has increased the service tax to 16 per cent. Instead, the government could have bought down the taxes by announcing an RCM, now we have to shell out extra four per cent from our pockets. The other initiatives related to tourism are irrelevant like the extension on Visa of Arrival to 150 countries, which had already been announced and does not co-relate to the Annual Budget.”
Madhavan Menon, managing director, Thomas Cook (India) said, “The Government’s pro-tourism strategic vision sees continuum and we applaud the vision and long term initiatives of Budget 2015 – 2016 including expanding the VoA scheme to 150 countries in a phased approach; focus on developing World Heritage Sites is of huge value given that many are in a bad shape and have received scant attention in the past. In addition to this, the investment of Rs two lakh crore towards sanitation is critical for Incredible India’s image, overall.”
Rajeev Wagle, managing director, Kuoni India, “Proposals such as exemption to individual taxpayers, proposal to cut to 25 per cent corporate tax and a series of measures to boost consumption will allow the travellers to consider holiday and travel options more favourably. ”
Ajay Bhatia, vice president and chief operating officer, Mercury Travels said, “We can see around 30 per cent increase in tourist arrival. Short haul from neighbouring countries will get a boost. This will be a significant contributor to the Indian economy as well as driver of progress through creation of jobs.”
Vikram Malhi, managing director- Asia, Expedia said, “A major announcement that is likely to positively impact the OTA segment is the government push to create a cashless economy, by aiding digital coverage and debit, credit card penetration in the country.”