IATO recommendation for removal of 2 crores minimum cap in Revised MDA Guidelines Effective from 1st January 2021.
29th January 2021
To All Members,
Dear All,
Sub: IATO recommendation for removal of 2 crores minimum cap in Revised MDA Guidelines Effective from 1st January 2021.
As you are aware on receipt of revised MDA Guidelines from the Ministry on 6th January 2021, which are effective from 1st January 2021, IATO wrote back to the Ministry for the following
1. To remove clause of the requirement of minimum foreign exchange earnings of Rs. 2 crores so that all our small tour operators can make use of MDA Scheme for overseas marketing & promotions and they can participate in Road Shows and claim reimbursement.
2. Clause of booking air ticket directly from Air India or from their online portal or from the online portal of the private airline or directly through the office of the private airline and not through an agency should be removed and members are allowed to book air ticket through travel agents also.
3. All MDA claims are to be settled by the Ministry within a period of 30 days from the date of submitting the claim if all documents are in order. If there is any shortcoming in documents, same should be notified within 5 working days from the date of submission of document enable resubmit the same.
Following our letter sent on 8th January, a meeting was held with Joint Secretary Tourism on 20th January 2021. During the meeting, we had clarified that this clause of minimum turnover of Rs. 2 crore foreign exchange earnings was not there in the draft proposal, which we received from the Ministry. Therefore, we requested to maintain the same status as it was in their previous guidelines as it will immensely help the small tour operators who are recognized by the Ministry of Tourism, Govt. of India. After the patient's hearing, JS (Tourism) assured us that for the requirement of minimum foreign exchange earnings of Rs. 2 crores, it will be put up for removal. He also assured us to look into our other requests as mentioned in our letter dated 20th January 2021.
A reminder to the above has been sent to Joint Secretary (Tourism) today to know the latest development.
The above is for your information.
With regards,
Rahul Chakravarty
COO