Take advantage of emerging opportunities; do not depend on incentives, exemption: Arun Jaitley

Asking the industry to improve business model to take advantage of emerging opportunities, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday said they cannot indefinitely depend upon incentives and exemption.

"At the end of the day, India indefinitely cannot survive and sustain merely on incentives and exemption. We are now in the process of goods and services tax (GST) implementation. I am asked the question what do you think the rate will be? My answer always is more the exemptions, higher will be the rate because when you exempt some people, you charge others higher rate," he said.

He further said that exemption distorts rate and there is need for fair rate.

Speaking at Incredible India Tourism Investors' Summit 2016, Jaitley asked the industry to develop such business models that the market really accepts those.

Citing example, he said, "Today, we are one of the few fortunate economies because of global oil prices we are able to save lot of money and one of the industries directly impacted by this is the aviation industry.

"Therefore, you have one set of aviation industry which has not conducted business models adequately which will disappear into thin air and the others will cover up all losses they have made over the year."

Therefore, he said, business model has to adjust to the capacity of the market and possible potential of the expansion as far as market itself is concerned.

With regard to tourism sector, he said, the focus should be on volume and moderation of rate and taxes to attract higher number of tourists of all nature.

"Our emphasis for the future will have to be on much larger volume and for the much larger volumes we will need moderate rate, moderate taxes, availability of facilities for all kind of tourist to enter into India.

Therefore, once we offer a deal which is better competitors internationally, I am sure the unrealised potential of Indian tourism can be seen," he said.

Meanwhile, the official Investment Promotion and Facilitation Agency of the Government of India has tweeted the photo of the event:

IITIS 2016 officially begins! The Hon'ble Finance Minister & many dignitaries address the gathering. #InvestNow pic.twitter.com/voMam5N21I

— Invest India (@investindia) September 21, 2016

He assured the government would continue to support in terms of facilitation like e-visa, protecting and market of heritage sites, marketing India's tourism internationally.

Speaking at the event, Tourism Minister Mahesh Sharma said that the tourism sector has been identified as one of the priority area and "we have to harness our tourism potential".

All stakeholders are committed to raise tourism sector to a newer height, he said, adding the government has come up with new ideas to develop our tourism sector.

"We propose to take our share in tourism to 1% by 2020 and by 2025 we are aiming for a 2% share in the global tourism market.We are in the process of adding another 25 countries for providing e-visa facility, which is currently available to 150 countries," he said.

Meanwhile, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, in his special address, voiced his concern over small countries attracting more tourists as compared to India.

Naidu expressed hope that tourism sector in the country will not only survive but will do very well in future. He also invited the investors to invest in India's tourism sector as it would earn them good returns.

The three-day summit is a platform for domestic and international investors to meet project owners from across Indian states and the private sector.

A first-of-its kind summit, organised in India, is expected to attract investments to the tune of over Rs 50,000 crore from around 700 investable projects.

Besides, the summit would also see as many as 3,000 business-to-business (B2B) and Business-to-Government(B2G) meetings.

Some 250 investors from across the globe including those from China, Dubai, Hong Kong, Qatar, and Singapore, among others, are expected to discuss various investment proposals during the event.