IATO waives admission fee

As part of its special drive for strengthening the pan-India membership base, IATO has waived off the admission fee of `10,000 (plus 18 per cent GST) for applicants from certain states and UTs. The Association is also motivating existing members to get MOT-recognised.

Manas Dwivedi

To strengthen its membership base, the Indian Association of Tour Operator’s (IATO) Executive Committee (EC) has taken some major and important decisions to increase membership in states where the association has fewer members, and also to encourage allied members across the country to change their status from Allied to Active.

Rajiv Mehra, President, IATO, says that the EC has decided to waive off the admission fee of `10,000 (plus 18 per cent GST) for applicants from some of the states and union territories (UTs) where IATO needs to encourage stakeholders to join the association to strengthen its membership base. These states and UTs include Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chandigarh, Chhattisgarh, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Daman & Diu, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand, Ladakh, Lakshadweep, Puducherry, and the Northeast states. “The EC has gone beyond and has decided to give 50 per cent discount on the admission fee for the applicants from other states that are not mentioned above. There is no waiver/discount on the annual subscription and that is to be paid fully. This waiver /discount in admission fee will be for the applications received up to March 31, 2022,” Mehra shares.

Earlier, the EC had decided to give relief to existing members in the category of tour operators, travel agents, transport operators and hotel representation companies. All these category of members, who have paid their annual subscription for the financial year 2020-21, their membership will automatically be renewed for the financial year 2021-22 and they will not be charged the annual subscription for the financial year 2021-22.

Talking about the main objective of this membership drive, Mehra says that his team wants to make IATO a strong voice of the tourism and travel industry all over the country. “I request all members to support the EC in
the membership drive, encourage all their friends and other stakeholders in the tourism industry to apply for IATO membership, and take benefit of waiver/discount in admission fee. We also want to encourage existing Allied members who are MOT-approved and have foreign exchange earnings of minimum `20 lakh during FY 2019-20, to apply for change of status from Allied to Active category. All help will be rendered by the IATO Secretariat, New Delhi, so that after they get MOT recognition, they will be eligible to change their status from Allied to Active category after completion of two years from the date of their getting MOT recognition. This will also entitle them to take benefits from MOT,” he says.