The hospitality and tourism industry, which has been severely impacted by the Pandemic, is deeply disappointed with the Union Budget 2022. The budget has been very disappointing, the extension of the ECLGS Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme with additional allocation to the crawling hospitality sector and the addition of an additional 2 lakh crore for Micro and Small Enterprises through the CGTMSE Credit Guarantee Fund is one of the only relief measures provided as part of the Union Budget 2022 -- 23. Gurbaxish Singh Kohli, Vice President, Federation of Hotel Restaurant Associations of India FHRAI, said that domestic travel for individuals and corporates will be deductible expense in their IT returns because of the special allocation through ECLGS. The inclusion of hotels and tourism related sectors in the National Infrastructure Pipeline NIP infrastructure status and industry status for the hospitality industry and allowing Input Tax Credit ITC for restaurants is a result of the inclusion of hotels and tourism related sectors in the National Infrastructure Pipeline NIP infrastructure status and industry status. The industry requested long-term credit facilities because of the vulnerabilities and the time it would take for businesses to resume normalcy. The number of meetings we held with the Finance Ministry and other ministries led us to believe that they were going to announce some sort of specific relief for the industry, but it is a huge disappointment that it has not come through, says Kohli.
Agrees Nakul Anand, Chairman, FAITH Federation of Associations in Indian Tourism Hospitality The Union Budget provides some relief and medium to long term infrastructure measures to the stressed tourism, travel and hospitality industry, but there was an immediate opportunity for more direct intervention to support the highly stressed tourism, travel and hospitality companies and their employees. The Indian Association of Tour Operators IATO expressed deep disappointment at being overlooked in the budget. We wanted a one-time grant based on our 2019-20 turnover, reduction in GST, restoration and enhancement of SEIS benefit, reducing taxes on international airfares and overall reduction of taxes on the hospitality sector. Rajiv Mehra, President IATO, says that none of these found mention in the budget presented. An extension of the loan under ECLGS has been announced, but it is not useful for the inbound tour operators as they are not able to pay EMIs of the loan they have already taken. Banks are not providing fresh loans to tour operators until they clear their previous loans. The loans are not being given to tour operators who have taken loans under ECLGS 1 and 3, explains Mehra.
There has been a lot of employment loss in our sector, as well as a lot of financial loss. Just a few years ago, we were earning huge foreign exchange for the government and in this hour of despair we expected some hand holding by the government, he says.