Industry must brace itself for higher taxes

Ankush Nijhawan, MD, Nijhawan Group, “I think this increase in service tax is just the trailer for GST to set in. The government has made a soft opening to what GST will have in store at 14-18 per cent. Given this move, the tourism and hospitality industry has to brace itself for high tax rate when GST will be implemented. The prices will shoot up in short term and the effect will be seen on outbound as well as domestic travel. The increase in prices of holidays sold as packages will result in travellers to pay more and the business will be impacted temporarily. However, we need to wait for what GST has in store when it is implemented in June this year.