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A 42-year-old software professional from Maharashtra's Thane district lost Rs 17.2 lakh after he was scammed by two persons who promised him easy money through a part-time job, an official said on Thursday. A man and a woman got in touch with the complainant, who is employed with a top Indian IT firm, on August 3 and offered him a part-time job related to hotel bookings, the official said. The duo sent him a link through the Telegram app to carry out the job, the police said. The techie was first told to make some payment towards registration. The duo then smooth-talked him to pay more on some pretext or the other promising him easy money. After extracting Rs 17.28 lakh from the IT professional over the next few days, the duo became evasive when he asked them about the money promised to him, the official said. Based on a complaint from the techie, the Ambernath police on Tuesday registered a case under the IT Act. The police gave the names of the accused as Rahul Sharma and Sneha.
The onus of deducting TCS should be banks, in case a person makes an overseas hotel booking using the e-commerce portal of tour operators, said a senior official of MakeMyTrip, a leading online travel service provider. MakeMyTrip Group Vice President-Taxation Tajinder Singh said, in case a tour package is booked from the e-commerce portal, the company will take an undertaking from its customers, on whether the total amount remitted abroad so far has exceeded the threshold of Rs 7 lakh in the fiscal year. The government has said that from October 1, a 5 per cent Tax Collected at Source (TCS) will be levied on tour packages up to Rs 7 lakh in a fiscal. The rate will go up to 20 per cent for spending beyond the threshold. Currently, 5 per cent TCS is levied on overseas tour packages irrespective of spending. Singh said TCS collection on overseas tour spendings has two aspects -- one where a tour package is booked using the e-commerce portal and secondly, when the customer uses the por
The deluge in Bengaluru has led to a spike in demand for hotel rooms and a surge in room tariffs in some hotels as people escape waterlogged homes. Most hotels in the city already had a very high occupancy before parts of Bengaluru got marooned and current high rates were not a direct consequence of the floods, said industry players. When contacted, an OYO spokesperson said: "The average tariff for OYOs in Bangalore currently stands a little over Rs 1,000, making OYO an affordable and easily accessible stay option for flood affected people in the city. Our 'Nearby stays' option and 'Pay at hotel' facility makes booking an OYO easy for the rain drenched Bangaloreans looking for hotels. We hope to support as many Bangaloreans with quality stays during this challenging time for the city." At Leela Palace Bengaluru, a staff said the pricing has always been dynamic based on occupancy and demand. At present the existing rate for a standard double room for a night is Rs 15,750 plus taxes p
Hotel bookings for the March-May period this year have surpassed the pre-pandemic levels of the same period of 2019, led by strong domestic demand, Indian Hotels Co Ltd (IHCL) Managing Director & CEO Puneet Chhatwal said on Tuesday. The head of the Tata group hospitality firm said that the long-term outlook of the industry is going to be far more positive than it was 5-10 years ago, although the volatility and geopolitical sentiments around the world amid the fear of the fourth wave of COVID-19 makes it difficult to forecast beyond 100 days. "What we are experiencing in the last four to six weeks is such a strong revival. I can definitely speak for IHCL that our March, April and May (2022) business on the books is higher than March, April and May of 2019," Chhatwal said. He said the bounce back in the business is led by domestic demand as "international is very limited for 'bubble flights' or OCI (overseas citizen of India)". While the international flights is scheduled to resume .