TAAI makes representation for travel trade in front of Piyush Goyal

Jyoti Mayal, President, TAAI and Member Board – CII National Committee on Tourism and Hospitality, on behalf of the travel trade fraternity, submitted its inputs and recommendations to Piyush Goyal, Hon’ble Minister of Commerce & Industry, Textiles, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution at the 3^rd edition of DPIIT – ASCON Consultation Forum with Industry Associations’ theme ‘Stimulating Growth for Aatmanirbhar Bharat -Leveraging Opportunities Post Pandemic’. The six key recommendations were collated into a presentation under Investments, Cost of doing business, Ease of doing business, Trade Policy, Technology & R&D & Job creation & Skills.

Some of the key recommendations by the committee are:

• Inclusion of Tourism in Concurrent list. The National Tourism Policy has had multiple deliberations, but a revised policy is still awaited.
• Waiver of statutory dues and licenses. ECLGS 5.0 for disbursing another 20% on outstanding loans.
• Govt. to restore SEIS to 7% for travel and 5% for hotels & to restore without legal entity wise capping of 5 crores.
• Auto-renewal of licenses without any fees for this financial year.
• Enabling investments in the industry in a time-bound manner through single-window clearances.
• Promote travel spending LTA Tax Exemption and Allow a 200 per cent weighted exemption. Need of National Tourism Fund to be created.
• An empowered Taskforce to be created with members from the Industry, Ministry of Commerce, Tourism, Environment, Shipping, Civil Aviation and Culture.
• To restart scheduled international flights in tandem with tourist visas to stimulate inbound tourism & necessary provision to be made in the new Foreign Trade Policy 2021-26 for custom duty waiver.
• Opening up tourism by starting e-visa, through Vaccine certificates & promoting India as a Safe Tourist Destination. Campaigns to attract young talent.
• Skill Development and Training in Public-Private Partnerships (PPP). Travel agents to be reskilled through certified courses. TTT courses. Endorsement/certification by Government. Rebates to be given for investments in skilling.