Monday, January 30, 2012

Growth of Hotel Accommodation in the Country

The Government has taken various measures to augment growth of hotel accommodation in the country.

Hotel and Tourism related industry has been declared as high priority industry and Foreign Direct Investment upto 100%, under the automatic route is permitted in ‘Hotels & Tourism Sector’, subject to applicable laws/regulations, security and other conditionalties.

To encourage the growth of hotels, on the request of Ministry of Tourism, a five Year Tax Holiday was announced in the Budget of 2008-09 for two, three & four star hotels that are established in specified districts which have UNESCO declared ‘World Heritage Sites’ except the revenue districts of Mumbai and Delhi. The hotel should be constructed and start functioning during the period April 1, 2008 to March 31, 2013.

The Government has also announced the extension of Investment Linked Tax incentive under Section 35 AD of the Income Tax Act to new hotels of 2-Star Category and above anywhere in India.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has also issued revised Guidelines on Classification of exposures as Commercial Real Estate (CRE) Exposures. Thus, RBI has classified exposures to hotels outside the CRE Exposure.

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