Focusing on providing a seamless tourist experience, Sharat Chandra, Treasurer of Indian Tourist Transportation Association (ITTA) addressed certain ground level realties at the India Tourism Vision Day organised by Federation of Associations in Indian Tourism & Hospitality (FAITH) – the policy federation of all the national associations representing the complete tourism, travel and hospitality industry of India (ADTOI, ATOAI, FHRAI, HAI, IATO, ICPB, IHHA, ITTA, TAAI, TAFI). Chandra said, “As a long-term solution and to truly have one country one tax, it is critical to make available all costs of tourist transport for GST set offs. These include interstate taxes, taxes on fuel and taxes on parking, all of which exceed almost 40 per cent of our cost of operations.” He further informed that all interstate road taxes need to be standardised and there is a need to make them payable at a single point which will facilitate the ease of doing business. “To ensure that tourist transporters are enabled to provide world class experiences, permission must be provided to import of tourist vehicles under EPCG by tourism services exporters,” Chandra added. A complete waiver from payment of interstate taxes on tourist transport vehicles for a period of one year till a compete resumption takes place needs to be put in place.
