Vikas Suri – VP – Operations and Development, Lords Hotels & Resorts
In the past 2 years, the hospitality industry has been severely impacted by the pandemic; now, when the industry is recovering back, we expect some relief measures in the union budget 2023-24 to accelerate the growth.
The key demands are to give infrastructure status to smaller hotels. Currently, only Rs 200 crore or more has been accorded infrastructure status; if the same status is given to budget hotels, it will reinforce the economy in smaller cities and create more jobs. It is also suggestible to provide the Hospitality industry an industry status on a pan-India basis and to provide the privileges associated with an industry.
We also expect that the Loan repayment period should be increased from 6 to 10 years in the hospitality sector under the ECLGS scheme.
Improvisation in the GST slab and making it simpler is another expectation. The 18 percent GST category for hotels with room rates of more than Rs 7,500 should be removed and should come under the 12 percent GST category. In the future, it should be brought down further to boost domestic as well as inbound tourism
