Travel agents worried over TCS

Vadodara: Travel agents from the state are a harried lot these days. Already reeling under poor business due to coronavirus scare, the union government proposal of tax collected at source (TCS) has only added to their woes.
TCS that will be applicable for all the foreign travellers from April 1 this year.
“Our business is already suffering due to coronavirus scare. Those travelling abroad are now cancelling their plans and flight tickets too are getting costlier. In the coming months, the foreign bookings will shrink further,” said Bimal Mehta, former chairman of All India Domestic Tour Operators of India, Gujarat chapter.
“Due to TCS, the customers will have to pay an additional 5% on their travel cost apart from the5% GST. This will inflate their travel budget. The government has said that the 5% TCS will be refunded to the traveller when he or she files IT returns,” Mehta told TOI.
“But that is probably only for those who opt for older rebate scheme,” he added.
“TCS will not just affect the foreign travelling bookings but also increase lot of work for travel agents as we will have to take PAN card of the client and file all compliances with the government. It is additional work and smaller agencies don’t have such mechanism to deal with such compliances,” said Reena Gami, a Vadodara-based travel agent.
Mehta, who is a travel agent based in Ahmedabad, said added that the federation of travel agents associations have presented their case to the government. Travel agents across the country too have taken to twitter and are running a trend #savetravelindustry appealing the government to defer TCS till Coronavirus scare subsides.