Mahesh Iyer

Executive Director & Chief Executive Officer, Thomas Cook (India) Limited.

On behalf the Travel Services Industry, we welcome the Government’s announcement to defer the proposed increase in the TCS rate for remittances under LRS to Oct 1, 2023. We appreciate the Government’s initiative that will help create a level playing field – taking on board inputs from relevant stakeholders, including travel and authorized foreign exchange players.

The clarification regarding the threshold of Rs. 7 lakhs per individual per financial year across all modes of payment regardless of purpose, will go a long way in aiding the buoyancy being witnessed in the travel industry, which is still recovering from 2 consecutive years of the impact of the global pandemic.

As India’s leading foreign exchange provider, we believe this positive announcement also brings in much need clarity with Prepaid Forex cards (the preferred mode of transactions for overseas travellers) now being treated on par with credit/debit cards.