The Maharashta government on Friday said it will set up a committee, chaired by the chief secretary, to look into de-licensing and single-window clearance for the hospitality industry.
Talking at the 15th regional convention of Hotel & Restaurant Association (H&RA) Western India, the chief minister of the state, Ashok Chavan, said, ?The government will look into liberalising the sector and de-licensing it.? The government will study the tax structure existing in different states as well as other countries to rationalise the present tax structure in the state, he added.
There are around 140 licences needed for setting up a hotel in the state. ?The whole process of getting the licences takes around a year and a half, leading to around 10-15% increase in the cost of the hotel project,? explains SP Jain, president, H&RA Western India and chairman, The Pride Hotels. He added that if the single-window clearance is implemented and unnecessary licences removed, the turnover time for a hotel property would come. The total taxes levied on the sector sum up to 30-35% including municipal tax, luxury tax, value-added tax and service tax.
Further, the association has also demanded from the government to look into the soaring electricity tariff. ?The electricity tariff has increased by 200-300% over the last two year,? said Jain, adding that there is a discrepancy in the tariff charged by power suppliers. ?Despite given industry status by the state, we are still being charged as per commercial rates and not industrial rates for electricity,? he added.
H&RA Western India has also proposed to setting up a Tourism Development Fund, exclusively for the promotion of inter-regional tourist circuits. It has proposed transfer of a minimum of 10% of the revenue collected from the hospitality industry by the government to Western India Tourism Development Council for growth of the variety of destinations in Western India region.
Costly affair
•The process of getting licences escalates the cost by10-15%
•Total taxes levied on the sector sum up to 30-35%
•Electricity tariff has increased by 200-300% over last two year