We sincerely believed the government would consider some substantial relief in the supplementary demand, says IATO President Rajiv Mehra

IATO has expressed deep sense of despair on the FM Nirmala Sitharaman completely ignoring in her budget speech the plight of the tourism sector and not announcing any sop for the sector when it has borne the maximum brunt of pandemic.

An extension of the loan under ECLGS has been announced, but it is of no use for the inbound tour operators as they are not able to pay EMIs of the loan they have already taken. Besides banks are not providing fresh loans to the tour operators until they clear their previous loans. Further the loans are not being given to tour operators who have taken loans under ECLGS 1and 3.

“We had requested one time grant based on our 2019-20 turnover, reduction in GST, restoration and enhancement of SEIS benefit, reducing taxes on International airfares and overall reduction of taxes on hospitality sector. Most disappointingly none of these found mention in the budget presented. There has been huge employment loss besides financial loss in our sector. Just few years ago we were earning huge foreign exchange for the government and in this hour of despair we expected some handholding by the government,” shares Rajiv Mehra, President IATO, adding, “We sincerely believed the government would consider some substantial relief in the supplementary demands.”