The Maharashtra government on Thursday announced a new tourism policy, where tourism will get “industry” status.
The Maharashtra government on Thursday announced a new tourism policy, where tourism will get “industry” status. The government also set a target to extend investment in tourism up to Rs 30,000 crore, expected to generate employment for over 10,000 people. Also, investors will get a rebate in net VAT, exemption in luxury and entertainment tax.
The draft policy of the tourism department got a nod from the state cabinet in its meeting on March 8. Professor Ram Shinde, minister of state for tourism, made the announcement in the house. Elaborating the features of the policy, Mr Shinde said that the state had set a target to attract investment in tourism to the tune of Rs 30,000 crore within the next five-year period. The policy would focus on skill development, guide training, training taxi drivers on how to behave with tourists, and also development of tourism and investment. Persons interested in the complete tourism development course would get a stipend of Rs 12,500, while those interested in training for guides would get a stipend of Rs 5,000 per person. The policy would boost medico tourism, nature tourism, agriculture tourism and off course tourism at religious places while standard operating systems would be prepared.
As per the new policy, educational tours to visit agricultural tourist places would be mandatory.
Mobile apps on tourism places would be developed to ensure tourists get handy information. The state cabinet also approved establishing a Tourism Directorate to supervise all activities of tourism, and regional offices at Nagpur, Aurangabad, Amravati, Sindhudurg and Pune. The tourism department would be sub-divided into five administrative regions and classified into Mega, Ultra Mega, Large, Medium, Small and Micro tourism places to attract investment and generate employment. The policy would offer exemption in luxury tax as well as in entertainment, electricity duty charges and stamp duty. Exemption in Non Agriculture (NA) tax would be available for investment on land owned by the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation. The policy also suggested additional incentives for tourism projects by women entrepreneurs, tourism projects by special people, and sustainable tourist projects.
