According to the document shared by the Finance Ministry, the budget outlay for overseas promotion and publicity, including MDA, ₹167crores , which is less than 50% of the outlay announced in FY2022-23 (₹341cr). However, the revised outlay was eventually was ₹60cr for both overseas and domestic promotions.
Read More »Civil Aviation’s Maintenance, Repairs & Overhaul Association appeals to Finance Ministry to fix lop-sided tax policies
The Maintenance, Repairs & Overhaul (MRO) Association of India (MAOI) has appealed to the Finance Ministry to, on priority, fix the lop-sided tax policies to create a level playing field between the Indian MRO industry and foreign MROs. The MAOI has stated that in the current financial year 2018 -19, the industry has registered negative growth. With 90 per cent of the MRO requirements of India being imported, the import driven policy has lost 90,000 direct jobs to countries like Sri Lanka, Singapore, Thailand, France and Germany. The MAOI has made recommendations to the government for the future and growth of the Indian MRO industry: reduce GST for Indian MRO services to 5 per cent to bring it on par with foreign MRO services. Alternatively, customs duty on MRO services (where such capabilities exist in India as per DGCA CAR 145 approved organisations list) should be applied at 18 per cent on all imports and grant of ‘infrastructure’ status to MRO industry. Bharat Malkani, President, MAOI, says, “Based on data from Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), the current fleet of 550 airliners is expected to grow to 1000 by 2023. The government is focused on creating new infrastructure and is encouraging domestic carriers to expand their fleet size. While this is a positive development for Indian Aviation, it has no bearing on its immediate ancillary MRO sector. This is because the present GST for importing MRO services to India is levied at 5 per cent, whereas the same services offered at home are taxed at GST of 18 per cent. Of the several requests we are making to the Ministry through the pre-budget memorandum, our highest priority is to have the GST …
Read More »FAITH proposes ‘Holiday in India’
At a recent pre-budget meeting with the Finance Ministry, FAITH proposed a tourism strategy — Holiday in India — on the lines of ‘Make in India’. FAITH has done a scenario analysis, which shows that under this strategy, Indian tourism can impact up to an estimated 12-16 crore jobs directly or indirectly from the current levels of approximately 4-5 crores. The tourism GDP can get impacted directly or indirectly up to 40 lakh crores from the current levels of around 7- 8 lakh crores. In a document released to its industry members, FAITH has said that the objective behind ‘Holiday in India’ is to make India a multi- season, multi-product, highly preferred tourist / business / conference destination for both the global and domestic tourists.
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