Joy Roy Choudhury – Kolkata
After being elected as the new president of Hotel & Restaurant Association of Eastern India (HRAEI), Sudesh Poddar, plans to work with various state governments of the eastern and north-eastern states to tap the immense tourism potential of the region. Poddar is the managing director of Satya Hotels and Natraj Hotels & Resorts.
The newly formed managing committee of HRAEI has Vinay Malhotra of Viramma Resort as senior vice-president; Smita Parikh of Fortune Hotel Centre Point- Jamshedpur as vice-president; Pranav Singh, owner of Opium Bar & Restaurant as the secretary and Navin Suchanti of Sinclairs Hotels & Resorts as the treasurer. T S Walia, president, FHRAI is also a member of the managing committee. According to Poddar, “The eastern and northeastern regions of India and the Andaman & Nicobar Islands have immense potential for growth of tourism. The focus of HRAEI in the current year will be to work with various state governments to realise the tourism potential of the region.”
Elaborating about his priorities to Food & Hospitality World, Poddar said, “One of the major constraints faced by the hospitality industry is the high and complex taxation structure. There are multiple taxes like VAT, service tax, luxury tax and entertainment tax. Our endeavour will be to network with the state governments to work out a uniform tax structure.” HRAEI is the umbrella organisation of hotels and restaurants of 12 states, namely West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, Assam, Jharkhand, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Sikkim and the Union Territory of Andaman & Nicobar Islands.
