Union Budget 2021: Covid hit Travel and Tourism sector seeks tax cuts, incentives

New Delhi: The travel and tourism sector under the cascading impact of coronavirus is now eyeing on the upcoming Union Budget 2021 and is hoping that the budget will provide them some relief for post-Covid recovery.

The Federation of Associations of Indian Tourism and Hospitality has urged the government to provide some incentives in the Union Budget on February 1.

The acting CEO of the Federation, Ashish Gupta, as reported by Dainik Jagran, said that the members of FAITH are in contact with several government officials and they are looking forward to the Budget 2021 and hope that they will get the relief. Gupta further said that they have raised a demand to exempt the tourism sector from the integrated goods and services tax (IGST) and income tax exemption on travel to India.

Meanwhile, the hospitality sector, which is one of worst-hit sector due to the coronavirus pandemic, is also expecting some relief in the Union Budget on February 1. Federation of Indian Hotels and Restaurants Association (FHRAI) vice-president Gurbaksh Kohli said that the hospitality sector is one of those sectors which have not received any support from the government during the pandemic, thus, the sector professionals are hoping high from Nirmala Sitharaman’s budget announcement.

“In the past eight months, the hospitality sector has been highly affected due to the coronavirus pandemic and thus they are looking forward to the upcoming budget as from that it will make it clear for them that how things are going to turn out for the hospitality sector,” said Gurbaksh Singh Kohli, vice-president of the Federation of Indian Hotels and Restaurants Association (FHRAI).