Latest News | Prepare Document for Seeking Infrastructure Status for Tourism : Minister to Stakeholders

New Delhi, Dec 18 (PTI) Tourism Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat on Wednesday asked stakeholders to prepare a paper seeking "infrastructure" status for the travel and tourism industry.

The hospitality players have been demanding infrastructure status for the sector to make investments on new properties more attractive, rather than categorising them as luxury or 'sin goods'.

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"We are talking to Minister of Finance Nirmala Sitharaman on this. Still we have to work a little more on that. I have requested CII and the industry stakeholders to prepare concrete documents ... so that we can go to Ministry of Finance and try to get this status," he said on the sidelines of CII Annual Tourism Summit here.

Earlier, addressing the summit, Indian Hotels Company Limited (IHCL) MD and CEO Puneet Chhatwal talked about the various demands of the

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hospitality sector to enable it to play a role in the nation's development.

"Our long-standing asks for unlocking the sector's full potential such as granting infrastructure status to tourism, independent of geographical or population-based criteria. ... The states, as tourism is a state subject, should consider granting and implementation of industry status. A lot of states have done so," Chhatwal said.

He also demanded that the tourism and hospitality sector be accorded "deemed exports status".

"It is proposed that tourism services provided to foreign tourists in India for which payment is received in foreign exchange, should be classified as deemed exports. Consequently, tourism exports should be accorded the same treatment as other exports with transactions zero rated under GST while preserving input credits," Chhatwal said.

Such exemption of GST for foreign exchange transactions, would enhance India's attractiveness as a destination, he added.

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