Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI), the premier, nodal and largest Travel and Tourism Association in India. With the Union Finance Budget just announced we had expected that the Government undertakes our suggestions for good governance and ease of doing business for our trade.
Jyoti Mayal, President TAAI, stated that we expected much more than what was announced. However, we believe the Budget 2021 has focused more on spendings to enable economic growth through infrastructure roads and financial remedies. Travel, tourism and hospitality was completely neglected.
TAAI expected a larger focus on travel and tourism
As we await the fine print, the direct taxes are not clear. Further Dis-investment in AirIndia is still on the rocks and is expected to be completed this year. Clarity on the same is eagerly is awaited by us, the main stakeholder partner hereto. For Rail packages over the years this shall be an advantage since the Plan is to create a ‘future-ready’ Railway system by 2030. Passenger Logistics shall have an advantage in the circuits and infrastructure.
In Tourism we shall be able to attract for foreign tourist and give more opportunities to travellers viz a viz:
For Passenger convenience and safety the following measures are proposed: We will introduce the aesthetically designed Vista Dome LHB coach on tourist routes to give a better travel experience to passengers.
The safety measures undertaken in the past few years have borne results. To further strengthen this effort, high density network and highly utilized network routes of Indian railways will be provided with an indigenously developed automatic train protection system that eliminates train collision due to human error.
Further, TAAI had requested extention of LTC for a period of 2 years: She has proposed: “In order to provide relief to employees, it is proposed to provide tax exemption to the amount given to an employee in lieu of LTCsubject to incurring of specified expenditure.”, stated Jyoti Mayal.
Jay Bhatia, Vice President TAAI stated Private Public participation has be set forth in a big way along with privaisation. We hope this shall include in Travel and Tourism trade too. We see that the revenue shall come from borrowings only.
We had proposed single employee benefits / security under one provisio which shall care for labour welfare, social security, health, safety family etc. We are happy to note prima facie that with the implementation of the 4 labour codes. For the first time globally, social security benefits will extend to gig and platform workers. Minimum wages will apply to all categories of workers, and they will all be covered by the Employees State Insurance Corporation. Women will be allowed to work in all categories and also in the night-shifts with adequate protection. At the same time, compliance burden on employers will be reduced with single registration and licensing, and online returns. This shall assist members of our trade. It is inappropriate on the part Finance Minister to completely ignore Travel, Tourism and Hospitality business in its focus during the Budget.
Also Read: TAAI Urges Centre To Issue Certificates For Vaccinated Travellers For Ease Of Travel
