The Gujarat government today announced its new Tourism Policy for 2015-20, under which the sector has been given industry status among various other provisions to motivate entrepreneurs engaged in setting up new infrastructure and services in this sector.
The announcement was made today by state Tourism Minister Saurabh Patel at a function here.
According to him, the decision to give industry status to tourism sector will bring a paradigm shift to this sector.
"For the first time after Gujarat was formed, we have decided to give industry status to the tourism sector. Now, benefits given to only industries will be given to tourism sector, such as loan interest subsidies, concessions in taxes as well as in electricity duty," said Patel.
"Electricity duty forms a major part in the overall cost of any unit engaged in tourism sector, such as hotels. At present, they have to pay as per commercial rates of around 25 per cent. Now, all the existing units have to pay only 10 to 15 per cent under the new policy," Patel said.
Another key feature of the new policy is the 'capital subsidy' to be given to the new tourism units being set up in the operative period of the policy, ending on March 2020.
Apart from new units, this subsidy will also be given to those who are doing expansion.
Under this provision, tourism units having proposed investment of up to Rs 50 crore, excluding the cost of land, are now eligible to get 15 per cent capital subsidy, with maximum limit of Rs 7.5 crore, stated the policy document released today.
Those investing more than Rs 50 crore will also get 15 per cent subsidy in the limit of Rs 10 crore.
Additional capital subsidy of 5 per cent would be given to those units which fall under the corporation limits of Gandhinagar and also in the adjoining areas falling within 20 km radius.
In addition, entrepreneurs are now eligible to get loan interest subsidy ranging from 5 to 7 per cent for normal tourism units, such as hotels and resorts, and 7 per cent subsidy for Heritage Hotel projects.
Under the new policy, eligible tourism units will get 100 per cent reimbursement of stamp duty and registration fees on sale, lease or transfer of land.
Further, all such units are now exempted from paying Luxury Tax, Entertainment Tax and electricity duty for a period of five years from commencement of the unit.
For mega tourism projects, having investment of more than Rs 75 crores and capacity to employ more than 150 persons, government will give capital subsidy of 15 per cent in the limit of Rs 20 crore. In addition, they are exempted from paying taxes for seven years.
On the skill development front, training will be imparted to tourist guides hailing from local areas with a monthly stipend of Rs 5000 to them. In addition, efforts will be made to set up 'Tourist Police' department for the safety of tourists, stated the policy document.
The policy also focuses on developing some of the untouched avenues of tourism sector in the state, such as exploring possibilities in Cruise Tourism and Beach Tourism on coastal areas under PPP model.
According to state Tourism Secretary S J Haider, the key purpose of this new policy is to bring Gujarat in the list of top 5 states of India in tourism sector.
"In attracting domestic tourists, Gujarat stands at 8th position, with 3 crore domestic tourists visiting Gujarat every year. With 2.25 lakh international tourists, we rank 16th in India in getting foreign tourists. Our main aim is to bring Gujarat in 5th spot in both these criteria," Haider said.
