The tourism and exports industries are pushing for tax refunds to overseas tourists on goods being taken outside India, on the lines of the provisions in popular destinations such as the UK, UAE and Singapore, to attract international travellers and encourage them to shop more in the country.
The industry body's consulting CEO Aashish Gupta said the tax refund scheme for tourists was kept in abeyance when goods and services tax (GST) was rolled out, on July 1, 2017, since back-end systems and the IT infrastructure needed to be enabled for its last-mile implementation. “We understand that there is work going on around this and we have been taking it up with the tourism ministry as part of the budget proposal as well. This should be implemented,” he said.
“They are benefiting from increased sales and exports of local goods to international visitors due to the added incentive of tax refunds,” said Sahai. “The merchants in many of these markets compete directly with Indian retailers across a broad cross-section of goods offered, such as jewellery, textiles and lifestyle products.”
Subhash Goyal, chairman of STIC Travel Group, said he hoped the matter would be taken up in the next GST Council meeting. “All tourist-friendly destinations such as Singapore, London and Dubai are doing it. There is no reason why India should not do it. It will encourage more tourists to shop and spend in India,” said Goyal, who is also the president of the Confederation of Tourism Professionals.
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/policy/unregistered-persons-can-claim-tax-refunds-for-cancelled-contracts-on-gst-portal/articleshow/96574961.cms
