The Pune chapter of the Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) at a press meet held on Saturday, deliberated on their pre-Budget meeting with the Union Finance Minister and various issues pertaining to the travel industry. This is the first time that a travel agent association has been consulted by the government before the budget.

“Our main demands are granting export industry status to the tourism industry and exemption of service tax from travel agents,” said Amarjit Liddar, chairperson, TAAI, Pune chapter. She added that the travel agents pay FBT tax and income tax in addition to service tax, which is not fair and has to be extracted from the customers, which is an additional burden.

In their memorandum submitted to the government, the association also had demanded to revive the benefits of section 80 HHD of service tax to the tourism industry in its original form, increase in Service Tax abatement for domestic/ adventure tour operators and reduction of state luxury tax to five per cent.

When asked about the effect of recession on the tourism industry, Lidder said the inflow of foreign tourists has been affected a lot and the budget of people travelling outside the country has gone down. "If earlier, the holiday destination was Europe now it is Far East," said Lidder. Regarding the recent attacks on the Indian students in Australia she said, "The enquiries coming from students for higher studies abroad has declined but the tourists travelling to Australia remains the same." About the ongoing boycott of the Singapore Airlines by TAAI, Lidder said, "Zero per cent commission to the travel agents means additional burden to the customers. It is from them that we will have to extract the profit. Our boycott of the Singapore Airlines will not affect the business." She also said that passengers are not much affected as they can travel by other airlines.