27th January 2020

To

All Members,

Dear Friends,

Sub: Suggestions on how Ministry of Commerce can incentivize the tourism industry for rapid growth of foreign tourist inflow to our country

A meeting was called by Mr. Darpan Jain, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Commerce, Govt. of India on last Friday, the 24th January 2020, where Ms. Sangeeta Saxena, Director, Ministry of Commerce and Mrs. Sangeeta Godbole, Director General SEPC were also present. The meeting was called to discuss the issues related to Services Exports from India Scheme (SEIS).

During the meeting, Mr. Darpan Jain, emphasized on the tourism industry to give some out of box suggestions in bullet points as to how the Ministry of Commerce can incentivize the tourism industry through which we can rapidly increase the foreign tourists inflow to our country.

Besides the above, we have also been asked by the Ministry of Commerce to give the following information: -

  1. What are the tax component for the neighbouring countries which affect the cost of India tour packages/products ?
  2. What are the Incentive or Tax benefits given by other countries on tourism services ?
  3. What are the visa charges by neighbouring countries?

May I  request you to kindly give your out of box suggestions to IATO on email id operations@iato.in with copy on iato.circulars@gmail.com by 1400 hours on Tuesday, the 28th January 2020 enable compile and send the same to Mr. Darpan Jain, Joint Secretary and other officials.  We need to submit our suggestions by 28th January 2020 evening.

Thanking you and with best regards,

Pronab Sarkar

President