Shedding light on the grey areas

By Subash Goyal
President, IATO and Chairman, Stic Travels

It has been an incredible journey for us. Our biggest achievement has been of putting IATO as a national apex body for the travel and tourism industry and forming a close, collaborative relationship with all industry partners.

Listing our achievements in the last 25 years is a challenge. Some of our major achievements have been - Open sky policy for which IATO fought for over 15 years, reviving Ministry of Tourism's Marketing Development Assistance Scheme which was previously known as ADIT Scheme, issuance of airport passes for the IATO members to facilitate tourists/guests, charging of cash rate instead of Telegraphic Transfer (TT) rates by the hotels.

We have also been instrumental in reducing monument entry fee for foreign tourists. The association also worked towards abolition of inland air travel tax, reduction of central excise tax on air turbine fuel, etc. However, there are still issues that need immediate attention like the 75 per cent abatement against service tax attained as against 90 per cent abatement that we are aiming for, and the struggle will continue so that the tour operators are saved from an overdose of tax. Also, we would want ASI to rationalise the entry fee which is quite exorbitant for tourists. Let the charges be reduced to the level that Indians pay. With the industry growing rapidly, it essential to shed light on the grey areas.