Panaji: Goa tourism minister Rohan Khaunte said that the proposed Goa Tourism Promotion Management and Regulation Bill, 2024 aims at plugging the revenue leakage and bringing in discipline in the sector, as expected by the stakeholders.
Addressing a press conference in Panaji, Khaunte allayed fears raised by the opposition MLAs who had claimed the proposed act as anti-tourism industry. The minister said that wrong notions are being created by the opposition by misrepresenting the facts in the Bill.
Khaunte siad that the opposition is creating fear psychosis by stating that the tourism department would be levying tax on holding of the events including weddings in the state. He said that the propaganda is false as the Bill aims charge fee for the events which are related to tourism.
“There is a huge revenue leakage in the form of these events, who never pay any fee to the tourism department. We will be levying the fee so that these events can be regulated,” the minister said.
Khaunte also pointed out that the opposition was creating fear in the minds of the people about Tourism Police force. He said that the tourism police force is already existing in the state but this Bill will give right to the Director of Tourism to decide about their deployment, which would be decided depending on the requirement.
“The fear is being spread that we are creating a parallel police who will enter into the shops and reign in terror. There is nothing like that. There is no parallel police force,” he said.
The minister also said that the Bill speaks about levying two per cent fees on various tourism services. He said that this two per cent will be applicable only to those businesses which are located in Tourism Clusters.
“There are no tourism clusters in the state, at present. Even if we want to declare Tourism clusters, we will do it by taking the stakeholders into confidence,” he said.
Khaunte said that the tax collected from these clusters would be used to enhance the tourism facility in that particular area.
The minister said that the Bill is currently in draft state and government is accepting the suggestions on it from the stakeholders and also the public. He said that the last date of giving suggestions was July 6, which is now extended by another 15 days.
