11th July 2017

To All Members, 

Subject: This week in IATO – 3rd July to 8th July 2017.

IATO’s efforts continued to update members on the complexities of GST as with each deliberation something new cropping up. This time a special session was organised on 5th July 2017 at the Park Hotel, New Delhi, wherein Mrs Sungita Sharma, Principal Commissioner, CBEC, Govt. of India addressed the members. She flew from Mumbai on our request and spare valuable time to have direct interaction and reply to queries from members.

•  IATO prepared in advance a consolidated presentation on which clarifications were needed, which basically included the following:-

  1. Applicability of 5% GST on  Supply of Tour Operators Services (No ITC) – We have requested that it should be only in the margin or 1 or 2 % on the total turnover like in the case of traders 
  2. GST on Foreign Exchange Earnings should be exempted 
  3. Outbound Tours should not attract tax under the GST regime as services are provided outside India 
  4. GST on Hotel Tariff should be on the actual billing  amount and not on the published tariff also  and should be as per slabs fixed by the government, irrespective of the star category 
  5. GST on service provided by Tour Operators to another tour operator should not attract tax as it would double /multiple taxations 
  6. Airline should not provide ITC details to the corporate clients, rather tour operators should ITC details once the payment has been received by the tour operators. 
  7. How Tour operators can claim of CENVAT Credit for the period prior to 30th June 2017 as they are not entitled to ITC.  
  8. There is no clarity on GST on Luxury Trains 
  9. GST on House Boats should be 5% under tour package.  
  10. In the case of booking of a room in any Ayurvedic Resort or Hospital etc. through tour operators such bookings should be exempt from GST. 
  11. For the miscellaneous services for which GST is deposited by a tour operator under Reverse Charge Mechanism and there is No ITC applicable, tour operators should be allowed to deposit a consolidated tax on a monthly basis as they will not claim ITC. 

• A GST Workshop on 12th July 2017 is being organised by Ministry of Tourism, Govt. of India where all these points will be raised once again.  

• Similar workshops are being organised in different cities by the officials of CBEC/Department of Revenue, which GST cell of our Ministry of Tourism and IATO are coordinating through our Chapter Chairman in each state.  IATO has proposed such workshops/seminars in cities like Agra, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kochi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Trivandrum, Varanasi, etc. The workshop/seminar in Bangalore and Mumbai have already been conducted on 7th and 10th July 2017 for which arrangements were made by IATO Chapter Chairman in Karnataka and Maharashtra.  

• IATO President/EC members attended following important meetings in the Ministry of Tourism on the following subject:-- 

  1. Joint Working Group meeting on Trade between India and UK at Ministry of Commerce
  2. Global Media Campaign of the Ministry of Tourism. 
  3. Use of Digital Transactions in the tourism/hospitality industry. 
  4. Events where Ministry of Tourism would provide sponsorship. 
  5. Empanelling the survey agencies for MOT proposed surveys.

Ministry of Tourism, Govt. of India invited delegates from BIMSTEC countries i.e. Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand. IATO and members of Buddhist Tourism Development Committee attended the meeting on 7th July at The Samrat Hotel and organised Fam Tour from 8 -11 July 2017 for the delegates of Buddhist Circuit with support from IATO Buddhist Tourism Development Committee. 

• IATO training programme was organised on 6th July 2017 at Ethiopian Cultural Centre on Digital Marketing. This will be followed by two more training sessions on 12th July and 28th July 2017 on the same subject but for junior level officers from the same company. The first one had 25 Executives who participated in the training programme. 

Circular has been issued for participation in Top Resa-2017, Paris from 26 to 29 September 2017. Members who are recognised by the Ministry and would like to participate may send their confirmation to Indiatourism Paris directly. 
Shall keep you with the developments in due course.

With best regards, 
 
Gour Kanjilal
Executive Director