Focus goa / Tourism
www.businessgoa.in
Tourism Stakeholders and shack owners unhappy with proposed registration fees Draft rules of new registration fees for tourism sector has led to displeasure among shack owners and stakeholders
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By sybil rodrigues
he government in its draft rules for the tourism sector has announced new fees for various businesses including shacks, dealers, hotels, travel agents and so on. The government has also invited dissent and recommendations to these draft rules, to be forwarded to the Director of Tourism, before the expiry of period of thirty days from the date of their publication in the government notification, so that they may be taken into consideration at the time of finalisation of the said rules. As per the draft rules, the registration fees for tourism dealer will be `1,000 while for hotels it will be in three categories. For A Category (sophisticated accommodation), the registration fees for hotels with rooms above 100 would be `1 lakh; the registration fees for hotels with rooms between 50 and 100 would be `75,000; and the registration fees for hotels with less than 50 rooms would be `50,000. For B Category (medium class accommodation), the registration fees for hotels above 50 rooms would be `50,000; while the registration fees for hotels with less than 50 rooms would be `25,000. For C Category (economy class accommodation), the registration fees for hotels above 50 rooms would be `20,000; while the registration
fees for hotels with less than 50 rooms would be `10,000. For D Category (other accommodation), the registration fees for hotels would be `5,000. For the travel agents conforming to the standards, the registration fees would be for A-Class `20,000, for B-Class `15,000, C-Class `10,000 and for D-Class `5,000. For change in name of tourism operator and title of business activity, the fees to be charged will be equivalent to registration fees of the particular category. The duplicate certificate will cost `100. Every certificate of dealer and travel agent shall be valid for a period of one year that is for one financial year beginning from the year of issue. The certificate may be renewed for a further period of one year on the payment of the renewal fees. In case of hotel, the period of validity of the certificate of registration issued shall be not less than one year but could be maximum for a period of five years, as desired by the applicant in his application for registration. The same may be applicable for renewal, as the case may be. For the shack owners, the amount of fees to be deposited by the successful applicant shall be based upon the number of years of experience one holds, in the
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field of operation of shacks. 90 per cent of total beach shack owners having experience of three years or more will be divided in categories namely beaches at stretches A and beaches at stretches B, with fees increasing every year, for the three-year period. The remaining 10 per cent of total beach shack owners having experience of less than three years or without experience will have to pay fees of `50,000, `60,000 and `70,000, for the first, second and the third year, respectively. After scrutiny of the application, the prescribed authority shall grant license to a hotelier or unemployed youth, as the case may be, for putting up deck beds, umbrellas and chairs on the beaches for commercial use, by charging fees as `20,000 for 20 deck beds, for shack owner; `5,000 per deck-bed per season, for hotelier; and `875 per deck bed per season (subject to a maximum of 8 deck beds per season), for an unemployed youth. For online travel aggregator providing travel and accommodation booking, the registration and renewal fees per year will be `2 lakh, while for online travel aggregator providing accommodation booking only; it will be `1lakh. Also, for online travel aggregator providing travel booking only, the registration and renewal fees per year will be `1lakh. The annual fees for registration and renewal for tourist boat and launches including cruise boats is `15,000 for Category A, `10,000 for Category B and `5,000 for Category C. The same for a yacht is `10,000, for houseboat is `5,000, for Tourist Taxi is `500, for tents and tent equipment dealer is `1,000, for camping agency is `1,000, for porter
is `40, for tourist guide and excursion agent is `1,000 and for photographers is `5,000. For adventure sports operator and water sports operator the annual registration fees is `5,000, while for spice plantation owner it is `3,000. Shack Owners petition Tourism Director Shack owners from the State met the Tourism Director to put forth their requests to be provided with a concession in fees with regards to licenses for erecting shacks for this upcoming tourist season. They have also requested for easing the State’s ‘Shack Policy.’ Cruz Cardozo, President of All Goa Shack Owners Association, said that the shack owners had to wrap up their business early last tourist season due to COVID-19. Cardozo said that they had only three months of business during the last tourist season and from March to May the staff had to be home due to COVID, which resulted in huge losses. “We met the Tourism Director and pleaded for some concession or waiving off fees for tourism license, and other fees for shacks, sun beds and excise fees. Under the shack policy, if a person does not put up a shack in one year they get debarred. We have asked for a relaxation in this rule, for this year only, due to the pandemic.” He further added that while the Director did hear the grievances of the Association, they were also requested to approach the Government and put forward their appeal. He said that they would have to ask the Chief Minister or the government. “We had reached out to the CM a couple of months ago and he was sympathetic to our issue but we will have to wait for him to act on it. Right
