Budget 2023: Hard-hit during Covid pandemic travel and tourism sector expects boost, read their expectations

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The Union Budget for the year 2023 will be announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on 1 February. Ahead of the budget presentation, different businesses that have been hard hit by the Covid-19 pandemic have high expectations. The travel and tourism sector that was worst hit during the pandemic is looking forward to favourable announcements to give a major boost to the sector.

In a statement Nishant Pitti, CEO and Co-founder, EaseMyTrip said, there are several tenets of the industry which are expected to benefit from the upcoming budget session. The entire travel and tourism industry is still in the process of recuperating from the major blow that it faced when Covid-19 struck. As the pandemic becomes endemic, it is important for both the central and state governments to work in tandem to facilitate this sector and support it. For starters, the government could include travel and tourism in the concurrent list to provide it with industry status, which will help in making it more structured.

He said that a greater focus on the industry's revival is required, which can be done by implementing an e-visa fee waiver for tourist visas, and domestic income tax travel credit for Indian citizens and Indian companies. The Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) should also be extended to tourism and hospitality. In addition to this, we are also hoping that with the upcoming budget, the government will strive to increase the disposable income of the middle classes to aid the rise of discretionary spending. This can be done by taking concrete steps to improve the cash flows, enable access to easy credit, and reduce the income tax rates and GST tax rates.

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Avis India, an another company from the travel sector, in a statement said, travel and tourism have always been important contributors to the country's GDP. During Covid, this sector was among the worst affected and is still far from pre-Covid levels. It is also a big generator of employment and in the current context of high unemployment, supporting this sector will pay rich dividends to the economy. It, therefore, behooves the government to give a special thrust to this sector.

Sunil Gupta, MD & CEO, Avis India said in a statement, the upcoming Union Budget offers the government the perfect opportunity to do so by formulating provisions that aid the sector to recover from the losses it has borne during the last couple of years. As a travel-oriented business, we expect higher budgetary allocation to infrastructure to promote travel.

We are also looking forward to the government granting industry status to the travel and tourism sector, which will help in the regularization of policies and processes and better access to finance. Measures like rationalization of taxes, reduction in indirect taxes and related exemptions could also benefit the sector to a great extent by creating a favorable environment for people to spend their disposable income on travel. The introduction of soft loans with lucrative terms can also act as a stimulant for the sector, which is still on its journey to post-pandemic revival. We expect that the upcoming budget announcement will lead the sector towards a period of prosperity.