Is the credit guarantee scheme relief for tourism 'too little too late'?
Representational picture  Key Highlights Rs. 10 lakh for every licensed travel and tourism stakeholder Rs. 1 lakh for tourist guides licensed at regional or state level  When India finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced relief measures in the form of Credit Guarantee Schemes (CGS) for the tourism sector; Subhash Goyal the Hony Secretary of the Federation of Associations in Indian Tourism & Hospitality (FAITH), termed the relief as too little too late. Sitharamans announcement aimed to support more than 11,000 registered travel guides and other tourism stakeholders. Though a majority of tourism operators sought a stimulus from the government, Madan Sabnavis of Care Ratings considers the governments CGS loans during the second Covid-19 wave as being useful. In an interview with ET NOW he said, To be fair to the finance minister, she started off by saying that these are relief packages, they are not really meant to be a stimulus. Going by the report card of the government in the last year, it only provides an enabling environment. The answer is to the extent that people want credit, there is demand in a particular sector, getting a kind of a credit guarantee from the government will definitely be useful." To the question of how an extremely battered sector such as the tourism sector, would react to the governments loan offer of 10 lakh Rupees to every registered travel agency and one lakh Rupees to every licensed tourist guide; Subhash Goyal stated, People dont want to get into a debt trap. And what rate of interest?  While tourism operators are hoping for a revival of their livelihoods, Goyal suggests that the government ramp up its vaccination efforts in addition to opening up the countrys and the state borders. According to a World Bank report, the international community lacks a common set of standards that can help governments establish, operate and evaluate CGSs for SMEs. Though the Government of India may not be free to offer anything beyond CGS currently, with reports of homestay owners already receiving messages from the government thanking them for taking the seventh Economic Census; it can be observed that the government is certainly doing its bit to ease the pain of tourism operators.