Now, online travel portals come under GST lens

Move aims to check if hotels are correctly declaring the taxable value of bookings made through these portals

- MONIKA YADAV

After issuing notices to hotels across the country for allegedly underpaying goods and services tax (GST) on restaurant services, the revenue department has now widened its scrutiny by seeking information from online travel platforms.

The aim, according to sources, is to see if hotels are correctly declaring the taxable value of bookings made through these portals and whether GST should be paid on the amount paid by customers through these platforms or only on the amount received by hotels after deducting the platform’s commission.

Sources said officers in charge of central GST (CGST) had written to the platforms, seeking the booking-level data, including customer payments, commissions retained, and the amount remitted to hotels.

The department is analysing whether hotels have underpaid tax by leaving out the commission from their turnover.