The National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) mentioned yesterday that the restaurant sector wants to bring back the input tax credit benefits under Goods and services tax and furthermore tries to remove the number of licenses necessary for running a restaurant.
Rahul Singh, NRAI President mentioned the issue and said, “The restaurant industry has been singled out by removal of the input tax credit. The very concept of ITC is central to and is, in fact, the raison d’etre of GST, which is to prevent cascading of taxes.”
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He further said the insurance, real estate, and banking industries are kind of B2B services Industries which are tightly associated with the restaurant industry. After GST implementation, the named industries are allowed to get ITC benefits on any type of supplies including capital goods as well.
Singh explained, “We would urge the government of India to re-introduce ITC for restaurants.”
Explaining the condition of the sector, he said, “It takes over two dozen licences and permissions to be able to serve a sandwich. Rather than serving our customers, most of our time is spent in running around departments.”
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According to him, the restaurant industry’s present worth is Rs. 3,52,000 crore and in coming future it is expected to grow to Rs 5,52,000 crore by the year 2022.
Rahul Singh favoured the cut in licenses numbering and said, “For an industry of this size generating over eight million jobs, we also request introduction of a uniform policy that includes single window clearance and reduction in a number of licenses required for operating a restaurant.”