Shares of Easy Trip Planners Ltd., the parent company of online travel aggregator EaseMyTrip, surged as much as 10% on Saturday, February 1, after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman ‘s tourism push.

The government will develop top 50 tourist sites in partnership with states and also extend mudra loans to homestays, the FM said on Saturday (February 1).

In efforts to boost tourism in India, Sitharaman said medical tourism will be promoted in partnership with the private sector and the government will also give special focus to destinations related to life and times of Lord Buddha.

Presenting the Budget for 2025-26, the minister also said financial support will be provided for Western Kosi Canal, benefiting 50,000 hectare in Mithilanchal region in Bihar.

The Finance minister said hotels will be included in harmonised scheme, apart from Mudra loans to be provided to homestays. There will be visa waivers for certain foreign tourist groups. Hotels will be included in harmonised scheme and Medical tourism and ‘heal in India’ to be promoted in partnership with private sector.

The government will give special focus on destinations related to life and times of Lord Budha, says FM.

The government also proposed to increase threshold to collect Tax Collected at Source (TCS) on Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS) to Rs 10 lakh from Rs 7 lakh.

“We proposed to increase threshold to collect TCS on RBI’s LRS scheme to Rs 10 lakh, from Rs 7 lakh currently,” she said.

Under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme, all resident individuals, including minors, are allowed to freely remit up to $2,50,000 per financial year (April – March) for any permissible current or capital account transaction or a combination of both.

Meanwhile, earlier in January, Nishant Pitti, one of the co-promoters, had tweeted on social media platform “X”, saying that there will be no further stake sale from his end in Easy Trip Planners. He confirmed the same in an interaction with CNBC-TV18 as well.

Pitti told CNBC-TV18 that the 1.4% stake he sold was due to personal requirements and that neither he, Prashant or Rikant Pittie will be selling any further stake in the company. He also said that the 14.2% stake that he owns in the company was never fully on sale to begin with.