As part of the policy to promote economic reactivation and boost the sector sightseeingthe Government promulgated the law that reduces from 18% to 8% the General sales tax (IGV) for tourist mypes (restaurants, hotels and tourist accommodation), and will enter into force on the first day of the month following its enactment, valid until December 31, 2024.
The head of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism (Mincetur), Roberto Sánchez, stated: “The number of direct and indirect jobs in the tourism sector will recover to pre-pandemic levels in four years (by 2026). The law would accelerate the recovery of tourism jobs by 2024, that is, in two years, as has happened in other countries that have adopted similar measures.”
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Along these lines, he highlighted: “The law will encourage the consumption of tourist services, due to the effect of reducing prices for the taxpayer, favoring the recovery of demand and the growth of the income of tourism companies. This is by virtue of the fact that family income and the proportion of expenses allocated to leisure and tourism items have been reduced by the economic crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. On the other hand, the costs of restaurants are increasing, as a result of the rise in the prices of fertilizers and food worldwide, caused by the war between Russia and Ukraine.
“As a product of the application of the law, the net profit of the companies will increase, allowing their capitalization, especially through the renovation and modernization of their assets, allowing the improvement in the quality of their services in the sector”, added the head of the Mincetur.
This measure will allow the closure rate of formal tourism companies to decrease, safeguarding the tax base and the level of formal employment; and the generation of incentives for the formalization and creation of tourism mypes, reducing the levels of informality in the sector, which have worsened during the Covid-19 pandemic, allowing the increase of the tax base. In this way, it would also be possible to counteract the fiscal cost of the measure (estimated at S/690 million), in terms of greater tax collection. The proposals for partial tax exemption are contemplated in the Tourism Sector Emergency Plan. , approved by Ministerial Resolution-No. 123-2022-Mincetur, in May of this year.
FACT
According to MINCETUR, during the period prior to the pandemic (2019), the sector represented 3.9% of GDP, additionally, it generated 1,457,000 jobs. In 2021, the tourism GDP was only 2% and formal employment was reduced to about 700 thousand jobs.
