The Big Developers' Debate

Developers, hotel owners and stakeholders meet to discuss the challenges they are faced with.

- Shafquat Ali

Mandeep Lamba, MD, India, Hotels & Hospitality Group, JLL (Moderator): This is a subject that we have been speaking about for the last 60, 70 years on how the government can facilitate the growth of hotels. Every forum that I go to, every convention that I have been to ever since I started going to conventions, the questions have been the same. They haven't changed; we are still seeking the same stuff that we were seeking 50 years ago. We are still talking single-window clearance, we are still talking simplification of access, we are still talking ease of acquisition or land, we are still talking FSI, we are still talking the same old stuff, we are still talking infrastructure, we are still talking cost of borrowing, nothing has changed; it's still where we were…

Sonica Malhotra, Joint MD, MBD Group: But the cost of borrowing has changed laterally across...

Lamba: Yes, so I think somewhere the question arises is: are we missing the point or are we not addressing this correctly or what’s the issue here? I don’t think that the government doesn’t necessarily understand what we want. Also, we are still considered to be an elitist sort of sector for the rich and the playground for the rich and the famous, not everyone understands the real infrastructure that we create and the need to do hotels in parallel with the growth of the economy. So, what I think we should do perhaps to start and trigger the discussion and we will start with Suresh and we will go around the room, can everyone just put one single point that you think is the most critical for the government to facilitate the growth of the industry.

Suresh Kumar, MD, ITC Fortune: So let me just say that if you are looking for one point, right now, GST. I think if that’s taken care, you have taken care of the customer – cost to a customer.