International travel must resume to put in place a system for GST refund

Talking about the GST refund for international travellers, Rupinder Brar, ADG, Tourism, revealed that as part of the statute, it has already been brought under the GST statute. “We have to wait for international travel to resume for putting the pilot in place. India also has GST refund for inbound travellers as a statutory provision, just like getting a VAT refund in some countries. Just before COVID happened, there was progress made in terms of enabling it, but because we had to shut our borders to inbound tourists, running a pilot wouldn’t have made sense. People need to travel in the country and shop,” she added.