Hospitality and Hotel Industry is reeling under since 2009 due to economic and other conditions. Recently, the Supreme court came with a judgement preventing any liquour sales within 500 metres of the National and State highways, crippling the business of hotels which are located on the arterial roads.
While the industry was trying to come to terms on this iUnion finance Minister dropped the bomb shell rates of GST on Restaurants and hotels starting from 12% to 28%. Tamilnadu Hotels and Restaurant Association decided to hold a dawn to dusk (6 am to 6 pm) protest against GST levy on Tuesday, 30th May, 2017 to register our strong protest and send a strong signal to the Government against the proposed levy of GST rates for the Hospitality Industry.
SIHRA has decided to support the efforts of Tamilnadu Hotels Association decision and are requesting all its members to participate in the proposed Bundh. Already Hotel Associations of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Pondicherry have extended their valuable support for the proposed bundh.
The recent developments and policies belie the importance of our industry. The policy makers have failed to recognize this Industry as one of the largest employment generators and net foreign exchange earners with an expected exponential growth fuelled by the growth of the great Indian middle class. It is imperative that we impress the Government of our displeasure on these recent developments that are adversely affecting our Industry.
The ordinary and non-star standalone restaurants and eateries cater to the middle and lower class sections of Society. They constitute a major percentage of this Sector.
Many States like Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Pondicherry have recognized the significance of this section and have extended concessions of as little as 2% levy under the State VAT Acts.
Despite numerous representations, memorandums to the Authorities the Government has proposed a levy of between 5- 18 % on the different categories of restaurants and the highest rate applicable for our industry steep levy of 28% GST on hotels with room tariff above Rs 5000.
The GST Council is scheduled to meet again on June 3, 2017.
