The shack owners from the state met the tourism director to put forward their requests to be provided with a concession in fees with regards to licenses for erecting shacks this upcoming tourist season. They have also requested for easing the state’s shack policy.
Cruz Cardozo, President of All Goa Shack Owners Association, stated that the shack owners had to wrap up their business early last tourist during the last tourist season due to COVID.
Cruz 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 asked for some concession or waiving off fees for tourism license, and other fees for shacks, sunbeds 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 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 now we won’t be able to meet him but we hope that our request will be considered,” said Cardozo.
Cardozo was questioned about the upcoming tourist season to which he said that many shack owners were unsure of whether to put up their shacks or not. He stated that every shack owner will have to decide for themselves whether to set up their shacks or not. He added that it was not possible for them to put pressure on the government but only ask for a concession. “If there aren’t any shacks, tourists may not come. In case shacks do open, the owners will have to strictly abide by government rule and SOPs.”
Meanwhile, the major hike proposed for various registration fees in the draft rules published by the tourism department has left the stakeholders of the tourism industry in a quandary.
The rules have been drafted consequent to an amendment to the Goa, Daman and Diu Registration of Tourist Trade Act, 1982, a year ago.
Menino D’Souza, director of tourism, stated that the rules were long overdue and that drafting commenced only after the amendment came into force. Over the year there were many consultations and ruminations and only after being duly evaluated by the law department, the draft rules were placed in the public department.
Menino stated that fees were not hiked for a long time and it was time for the government to decide upon the implementation of these rules. He further added that stakeholders can submit their objections and suggestions till September 29th and the rules would be finalized only after that.
He added that the registration fees that a few in the trade are charged is a meagre amount as compared to their volumes. He gave an example of hotels stating that irrespective of their category, they pay Rs 5000 as registration fees.
Under the proposed rules this has been increased to Rs 1 lakh for ‘A’ category hotels – having 100 rooms and more, which classifies as sophisticated accommodation.
A hotelier compared this to a “punishment” when the industry is awaiting relief from the government due to losses suffered owing to the pandemic.
Nilesh Shah, President of the Travel and Tourism Association of Goa (TTAG), said that this was a wrong time to raise the fees when tourism stakeholders were actually expecting a waiver. “The government may have a point in raising fees as they say that registration charges were not raised for years, but this is not the time to do it.”
The TTAG has called a meeting of its members to seek their views and accordingly a proposal will be prepared to be submitted to the tourism department.
He stated that they were given time till the end of September and will put forward their point of view to the government.
