Mahesh Sharma, Minister of State for Tourism (Independent Charge), Culture (Independent Charge) and Civil Aviation, has congratulated Arun Jaitley, Union Finance Minister, for presenting a balanced, far-sighted and growth-oriented budget. He has also thanked the Finance Minister for giving due importance to the tourism and hospitality sector in the budget.
Sharma added that the announcement by the Finance Minister to extend Visa on Arrival Facility(VOA) to 150 countries in stages from the current 43, is a big step to promote tourism. This, combined with the latest introduction of Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA) will help to achieve very soon the target of increasing the country’s share to international tourism to more than 1 per cent.
In his Budget Speech, the Finance Minister said that facilities at Cultural World Heritage Sites will be restored. He has stated that the facilities like landscaping restoration, signage and interpretation centres, parking, access for differently abled, amenities for visitors including securities and toilets, illumination and plans for benefiting communities around them would be restored. Jaitley has proposed to provide resources to start work along these lines for the following Heritage Sites- Churches & Convents of Old Goa; Hampi, Karnataka; Kumbalgarh and other Hill Forts of Rajasthan; Rani ki Vav, Patan, Gujarat; Leh Palace, Ladakh, J&K; Varanasi Temple town, UP; Jalianwala bagh, Amritsar, Punjab; and Qutub Shahi Tombs, Hyderabad, Telangana.
The five theme based circuits have been given Rs. 600 crores in the current budget and Rs. 100 crores have been allocated for the PRASAD scheme. Both these schemes were introduced during the Budget 2014-15. Sharma said that the issues of security and cleanliness are two major challenges for the tourism sector. The Minister added that, in the current budget, provisions have been made for safety and security, especially allocation of another Rs. 1000 crores for Nirbhaya Fund, and there is a large allocation for the Swachh Bharat Mission, which will help boosting the growth of tourism in India.
The Tourism Minister was not alone in welcoming the 2015-16 provisions for tourism. The travel fraternity in India has also accepted the moves proposed as the ideal way forward for increasing tourism numbers to the country.
“Focus on the development of World Heritage Sites, the Visa on Arrival scheme to be increased to 150 countries, more growth in term of investment in infrastructure will transform the travel and tourism sector considerably. Proposals such as exemption to individual taxpayers, proposal to cut to 25 per cent corporate tax and a series of measures to boost consumption will allow the travelers to consider holiday and travel options more favorably. This will surely help in tapping the huge potential in India of the domestic and outbound markets and will help promote a significant increase in international and domestic travel,” said Rajeev Wagle, Managing Director, Kuoni India.
According to Neelu Singh, COO, Ezeego1.com, “We are happy with the thrust on domestic and inbound tourism by developing key tourist destinations and sites and making them more tourist-friendly, such as World Heritage Sites of old Goa, Hampi, Elephanta caves, Leh Palace and Varanasi temple town. It will help draw a lot of heritage and religious tourists. The government has highlighted the desire to incentivise cashless transactions which is a positive development for online sites such as Ezeego1.com. With individual tax payers getting tax benefit up to income of Rs 4.44 lakhs, disposable income will increase, which is likely to indirectly induce leisure tourism. The Budget also pays heed to positioning India as a safe country for single female travellers by increasing contribution to the Nirbhaya Fund.”
Hari Nair, Founder & CEO, HolidayIQ.com opined that Visa on Arrival being extended to 150 countries is a huge step for Indian tourism. He further added that tourism is a sector that is a beneficiary of improvements across multiple areas. The focus of Budget 2015 on areas such as infrastructure, skill development and rural development has the potential to provide a big tailwind for Indian tourism. In addition, the specific announcement relating to up-gradation of certain world heritage sites signals continued focus on Tourism. “The question is, does the Indian tourism industry have the intrinsic capability to identify and quickly act on the opportunities thrown up by Budget 2015. The opportunities are certainly there,” he said.
Madhavan Menon, Managing Director, Thomas Cook (India) believes that the Government’s pro-tourism strategic vision sees continuum and he applauded the vision and long term initiatives of Budget 2015 – 2016 including expanding the VoA scheme to 150 countries in a phased approach as also the welcome move of eliminating some of the concerns and apprehensions that tourists as well as operators had as to how this system operates; Focus on developing World Heritage Sites is of huge value given that many are in a bad shape and have received scant attention in the past. “In addition to this, the investment of Rs. 2 lakh crores towards sanitation is critical for Incredible India’s image, overall. The rail and road infra thrust too will aid domestic and inbound tourism,” he added.
Celebrating another success in the Budget, Suresh John, Founder and CEO, RoomsTonite lauded Jaitley’s special mention about encouragement to new start ups and entrepreneurship in the country. “The Announcement to establish New Mudra Bank to help small businesses is a welcome initiative. Government announcing establishment of incubation and facilitation programme for start-ups in technology with Rs 1,000 crores allotments is a dynamic move,” he opined.
The hospitality sector, unfortunately, still faces the roadblock of heavy taxation. According to Gaurav Goenka, MD, Mirah Hospitality, the budget overall has been very positive keeping the growth of the Nation in mind. The only deterrent according to me in the increase in service tax to 14 per cent. The Service tax was already quite high and with it being revised upwards it’s going to be detrimental to the growth of the hospitality industry, he stated.
Speaking from the aviation point of view, Sajid Khan, Country Manager – India, South African Airways believes that the inclusion of entertainment facilities such as amusement arcades, theme parks, water parks, concerts etc in the negative list for Service Tax restricts such establishments from fully reaping the benefits of the growth in tourism. “Additionally, proposed changes to increase Service Tax rate plus Education Cess and Secondary and Higher Education Cess to 14 per cent will lead to a hike in air ticket prices,” he concluded.
