Ambala tour operators log losses, courtesy cash crunch, illegal taxis

Nitish Sharma

Tribune News Service

Ambala, December 9

Though this is a peak time for tour and travel business as wedding season is on and the next few weeks would see year-end travellers packing their bags for tourist destinations, the local tour operators are complaining of poor business. They claim that nearly 50 per cent of their business has been hit due to demonetisation and plying of illegal taxis.

“The tour and travel business totally depends on cash transactions. We don’t carry card swipe machines or accept cheque. In the absence of enough cash, people have been cancelling their travelling plans. The business is nearly 50 per cent down if compared with the corresponding period during previous years,” said Braham Dutt Sharma, a tour operator here.

“Currently, the wedding season is on during which buses and taxis are hired for marriages. However, bookings have been very low this year. A large number of people who used to make year-end plans for Manali and Shimla in Himachal Pradesh to celebrate New Year have also cancelled their plans to avoid hassles of money transactions following scrapping of high-currency notes,” he added.

Pradeep Kumar, another tour operator, said, “Advance bookings are getting cancelled while the new bookings are very less. The marriage season has already been hit by cash crunch and we fear for the upcoming year-end travelling season meeting the same fate. We used to get a large number of queries and bookings for tours between December 25 and 31 by now. But this time, the queries and bookings are below average. If this continues, we will suffer huge losses.”

“Besides demonetisation, illegal taxi operators have also been causing a huge dent on the business. Not only they are doing business at the cost of registered taxi operators, they are causing loss to the state’s exchequer too. Travelling in authorised taxies is expensive as we have to pay different taxes. People don’t mind taking unauthorised taxis as they have to pay less,” he added.

The tour operators said, “A large number of people with spare vehicles have tie-ups with unauthorised taxi stand owners, who provide them with customers. Since they are not registered and are doing business without permit, they don’t have to pay any tax.”