The 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 objections and suggestions 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 Rs 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 Rs 1 lakh; the registration fees for hotels with rooms between 50 and 100 would be Rs 75,000; and the registration fees for hotels with less than 50 rooms would be Rs 50,000.
For B Category (medium class accommodation), the registration fees for hotels above 50 rooms would be Rs 50,000; while the registration fees for hotels with less than 50 rooms would be Rs 25,000.
For C Category (economy class accommodation), the registration fees for hotels above 50 rooms would be Rs 20,000; while the registration fees for hotels with less than 50 rooms would be Rs 10,000.
For D Category (other accommodation), the registration fees for hotels would be Rs 5,000.
For the travel agents conforming to the standards, the registration fees would be For A-Class Rs 20,000, For B-Class Rs 15,000, Rs For C-Class Rs 10,000 and For D-Class Rs 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 Rs 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 in the 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 Rs 50,000, Rs 60,000 and Rs 70,000, for the first, second and the third year, respectively.
After scrutiny of the application, the prescribed authority shall grant license to 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 Rs 20,000 for 20 deck beds, for shack owner; Rs 5,000 per deck-bed per season, for hotelier; and Rs 875 per deck bed per season (subject to a maximum of 8 deckbeds per season), for unemployed youth.
For online travel aggregator providing travel and accommodation booking, the registration and renewal fees per year will be Rs 2 lakh, while for Online travel aggregator providing accommodation booking only, it will be Rs one lakh. Also, for online travel aggregator providing travel booking only, the registration and renewal fees per year will be Rs one lakh.
The annual fees for registration and renewal for tourist boat and launches including cruise boats is Rs 15,000 for Category A, Rs 10,000 for Category B and Rs 5,000 for Category C. The same for yacht is Rs 10,000, for houseboat is Rs 5,000, for tourist Taxi is Rs 500, for tents and tent equipment dealer is Rs 1,000, for camping agency is Rs 1,000, for porter is Rs 40, for tourist guide and excursion agent is Rs 1,000 and for photographers is Rs 5,000.
For adventure sports operator and water sports operator the annual registration fees is Rs 5,000, while for spice plantation owner it is Rs 3,000.
