HRAWI’s Goa Knowledge Series Tackles Hospitality Compliance

On a warm Wednesday in mid‑July, the Hotel & Restaurant Association of Western India (HRAWI) opened the doors of Fortune Miramar in Goa for the third edition of its Knowledge Series. The event, billed as a one‑stop learning day for hospitality executives, zeroed in on three regulatory fronts that are reshaping Indian hotels: the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, the latest GST tweaks and the newly‑minted Labour Codes.

Opening the floor, Jack Ajit Sukhija, president of the Travel and Tourism Association of Goa, welcomed the crowd and underscored why compliance can no longer be an after‑thought. Dr Gavin Dias of the Goa Tourism Development Corporation followed with a quick snapshot of Goa’s tourism growth, setting the stage for the deep‑dive sessions that came next.

Ernst & Young, the event’s official Knowledge Partner, took centre‑stage. Madhusmita Panda, senior manager in EY’s technology consulting practice, unpacked the DPDP Act of 2023 and the Rules that took effect in 2025. She reminded attendees that consent must now be granular, data‑security safeguards have to be documented and any breach can attract penalties of up to 4 % of a hotel’s global turnover. A short anecdote about a boutique resort that scrambled to update its POS system made the legal jargon feel surprisingly tangible.

Next up, Akshit Saraogi, director of global trade and customs for EY’s indirect tax team, walked the audience through the GST overhaul. Hotels charging ₹7,500 a night or less will now see a flat 5 % GST rate—no input‑tax credit allowed—while rooms above that price point remain at the 18 % slab with normal ITC claims. The practical implication, Saraogi noted, is a potential reversal of ITC on a large chunk of expenses, urging hoteliers to revisit their accounting software and e‑invoicing workflows.

The labour‑code segment was perhaps the most unsettling for many. EY’s Anshul Shukla and Rituparna Mukhuty explained how the newly‑defined “wages” now exclude only up to 50 % of total remuneration, meaning components like overtime, bonuses and certain allowances will be counted for Provident Fund and gratuity calculations. Their estimate? A 5‑10 % rise in people‑costs for the average hotel, at least in the short run.

Wrapping up, Carl Costa, EC member and area nominee for Goa, thanked the speakers and urged hoteliers to treat the day not as a checklist but as the start of an ongoing compliance journey. He hinted at future Knowledge Series sessions planned for other western Indian cities, promising that HRAWI will keep the conversation alive.

In short, the Goa Knowledge Series left participants with a clear to‑do list: audit data‑privacy policies, re‑configure GST accounting modules and recalibrate payroll structures. As the hospitality landscape tightens around regulation, events like this one aim to turn confusion into actionable clarity.