Tag Archives: IATO

IATO urges the government to remove cascading effect of GST on tour operators and GST on tour operators to be charged on deemed value as in the case of Air Travel Agents, where a deemed value of 10% of gross billing of the tour operator may be considered as the taxable value on deemed basis where as it is being charged on gross value for tour operators. 

IATO has thanked Finance Minister, GST Council and the Chairman CBIC for favourably considering  two of its recommendations- removal of, GST on services provided outside India to foreign tourists if they take combined package of India and neighbouring countries and  secondly GST for the ferry service hired for transport of passengers including tourists used as public transport from point to point transport in Andaman & aNicobar Islands,  in the GST Council meeting held in Chandigarh.

Rajiv Mehra, President, IATO, has said, “With yoga day being celebrated worldwide, India will come to the mind of everyone and publicity will be in favour of India as a destination for the same. The message will be loud and clear for India.”

Rajiv Mehra, President, IATO has requested the government to remove hurdles which are creating hindrances in revival of inbound tourism to our country and also has requested to help in in getting refund of travel agents from Jet Airways. He has requested to MoCA that directives should be issued to all domestic airlines, not to make it compulsory for the travelers to do web check-in.

MoT recently organised virtual roadshow titled ‘Incredible India Reconnect 2022’ from 26th April 2022 and IATO has written to them saying that virtual roadshows are no good and are not solving their problems, revealed Rajiv Mehra, President, IATO. They emphasised to have physical B2B meetings by organising roadshows which will be more meaningful and fruitful to revive business, he added.

Ministry of Tourism has kicked off its one-month long virtual roadshow, titled Reconnect 2022, starting with Oman. At the same time, IATO has written to the Prime Minister to help the tourism industry for revival of inbound tourism. In the letter, Rajiv Mehra, President, IATO has suggested that MOT should participate in all major international travel marts/fairs along with industry stake holders and conduct Physical B2B meeting during structured roadshows along with Indiatourism offices and embassies.

Rajiv Mehra, President, IATO, has thanked the MOT and MoCA for reinstating the Commercial Airport Entry Airport Pass (AEP) for recognized tour operators and hotels. “We have been trying for a long time and now the orders have finally come. Now, at least when the borders open, our members can apply for airports passes in the same manner as they used to earlier, except there has been some capping on the number of passes available, for which we were given indication two years back, when the airport passes were being suspended,” he said.

Rajnish Kaistha, Hony. Secretary, IATO, has said that the allocation for tourism budget for overseas promotions have been reduced, which in turn would affect the inbound business, especially when the borders open. “Government needs to allocate higher budgets for overseas promotion, publicity and marketing, along with MDA, because that is needed for our survival. The MDA gives us money to go and participate in the overseas trade shows and promotions abroad so that we get more tourists to start with and also do overseas marketing in an aggressive manner, for which higher budgets are needed. Any reduction in that is going to cause bigger damage in the long run and in the immediate future,” he says.

Sunil C Gupta, Chairman-Northern Region, IATO revealed that there have been two corporate charters on Maharaja Express in December, which was almost 2 years after the luxury train operated in March 2020. “It’s the best train in India on IRCTC. This opens another avenue for incentives to happen on luxury trains. It’s a great idea, which has caught on and more groups are likely to operate in May-June, once things normalise,” he said.

The IATO wrote to PM seeking respite in travel norms and financial aid to overcome the crisis that, has worsened after international flights were postponed. Rajiv Mehra, President IATO, with 1,700 members, want the 7 day quarantine to be waived for vaccinated travellers with a negative RT-PCR report and urged the Centre for financial support to small and medium tour operators, to help save lakhs of jobs.