Hotels To Get Export House Status

The government has decided to grant export house status to the tourism and hotel industry, and reduce the industry's threshold for zero-duty imports under the Export Promotion Capital Goods (EPCG) scheme from Rs 20 crore to Rs one crore to enable three and four-star hotels to avail of fiscal benefits.

According to industry and government sources, the two decisions were taken on Wednesday during inter-ministerial meetings of the tourism, finance and commerce ministries.

"Tourism minister Madan Lal Khurana is expected to announce some of the decisions taken by the government regarding the tourism and hotel industry on Monday," a source said.

The steps are aimed at giving a fillip to the tourism and hotel industry, the third-highest foreign exchange earner for the country.

However, the concessions are likely to fall short of the expectations of industry leaders, who have been lobbying with the government for export industry status, which entails wider benefits.

The export-import policy for 1997-2002 had doubled the turnover required to be achieved by exporters to qualify as status holders to Rs 20 crore for export houses, Rs 100 crore for trading houses, Rs 500 crore for star trading houses and Rs 1500 crore for super star trading houses.