More incentives sought to attract investments in tourism sector in Andhra Pradesh

The Tours and Travels Association of Andhra(TTAA), A.P. Tourism Forum(APTF) and the Hotels and Restaurants Association of A.P. while hailing the new tourism policy of the State government, sought more incentives to attract more investments. In a letter to Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, TTAA and APTF president K. Vijay Mohan sought the introduction of Tradable Incentive Certificate(TIC) to all the approved projects towards part payment of the incentives receivable so that it could be paid to local bodies for plan approval, registration fees and property tax.

Echoing his views, Vizag Development Forum vice president O. Naresh Kumar said that the new policy is good, but the government must include some practically viable rules to attract more investments.

According to him, if the project is completed in two years, the project plan approval charges will have to be adjusted with incentives and the government will have to pay the incentives to the local body instead of the project applicant. Registration charges will also be adjusted with incentives. Tradeable incentive certificate should be provided for tax payments like stamp duty, property tax. SGST input credit should be given on the portal instead of reimbursement.

A.P. Hotel Owners Association president R.V. Swamy said that the annual bar licence fee for hotels should also be reduced. The State has 47 hotels above three-star hotel status. Their annual bar licence fee of a star hotel is ₹67 lakh and this should be reduced.

Anantagiri ZPTC member Deesari Gangaraju, who fights for rights of non-regular workers of tourism places in the Alluri Sitharama Raju district, said that non-regular workers in the tourism places were not paid well by the governments, and their wages were not increased sfor years. There was no mention about the benefits to the workers in the tourism sector, who are mostly tribals in the tourism places like Araku, Paderu, Lammasingi etc, he added.