The Federation of Indian Tourism and Hospitality Associations (FAITH) announced on Monday that it had made proposals to the Treasury, RBI and Ministry of Tourism to take urgent action to protect businesses and jobs in the sector.

The association has applied for a waiver or compensation for fixed legal and compliance obligations. Although no income was generated, there are legal and compliance obligations at both state and central government levels and with other regulatory agencies that have yet to be met. These include various types of duties, taxes, duties or royalties, including electricity and water, property taxes, excise taxes, transportation taxes, parking taxes, insurance premium retirement funds, ESI (Employee State Insurance) contributions for hotels, travel agencies and tour operators, restaurants, or tourist transport companies any other form of tourist travel and hospitality services.

FAITH has called on the government to urge all state governments and the respective ministries to waive these fixed fees and conformities until the pandemic. The association has proposed setting up a corpus with the Ministry of Tourism to fulfill these monthly obligations of tourism travel and hotel companies and to dismiss them on their behalf.

The industry organization has requested that these employees in the tourism, travel and hospitality industry be sent an amount equal to the basic salaries before the pandemic as a direct transfer of benefits to their PAN card. This will help ensure the livelihood of people and their families for the duration of the pandemic.

The tourism authority said that the SEIS scrips for the 2019-20 financial year should be announced at the earliest as this amount is already being invested and spent on business development for the 2019/20 year. This benefit can help save many businesses.

Worldwide, Indian tourism has to compete aggressively with other countries for market share. These marketing and business development expenses are incurred by tour operators and hoteliers.

“As part of the foreign trade policy, SEIS was a way of offsetting such marketing expenses. SEIS fees for tourism foreign exchange earned for the 2019-20 period are still pending, which is placing significant charges on individual balance sheets, “FAITH said in a statement.

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