Hotel Industry is still struggling to get the basic incentives at par with other sectors of Industry in J&K : Hotel Association

JAMMU, Sept 16: A joint delegation of Hotel & Restaurant Association, Katra & Federation of Hotels, Restaurants, Industry and Commence of Jammu Region led by their President Rakesh Wazir met Union Minister for Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises Narayan Rane wherein Divisional Commissioner, Jammu Raghav langer and Director Industries & Commerce Anoo Malhotra were also present, discussed in details the scope, problems and challenges being faced by the Hotel Industry.

Wazir while speaking on the occasion said that Tourism, whether it is a pilgrimage, adventure, leisure, or even otherwise, is the backbone of J&K and lacs & lacs of people come over here whether for Vaishnodevi Ji, Amarnath Ji, Shiv Khori, Patnitop, Bhaderwah, Gulmarg, Pahalgam, Srinagar, etc. and attracts big chunk of people to our Union Territory and economy of UT is dependent on it and is the basic source of employment over here but the Tragedy is this that main component of it i.e. Hotel Industry is still struggling to get the basic incentives which the other sectors of Industry are getting.

He further said that previously hotels were provided with electricity at par with Industries but that practice too is disbanded just after one year and likewise, there was no Tax on Lodging before GST regime was there at J&K but with the coming of GST regime the Taxes in the form of GST were imposed on Hotel Industry and later on refund of GST was started in various sectors including manufacturing sector of industry but hotel sector in industry is still struggling to get that and apprised the Minister that all the benefits which are being provided to other sectors of Industry be provided to Hotel Industry as well because hotels too are part of Industry and are covered under MSME.