In a significant boost to the hospitality sector, the Akhilesh Yadav government is set to award a cash subsidy of Rs 10 crore to investors interested in setting up hotels in Uttar Pradesh.
The proposed UP Tourism Policy-2016, combined with other incentives on offer, is likely to attract key players and make the dream of Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav — to turn the state into the most sought after tourist destination — come true.
UP is second most popular domestic tourist destination after Tamil Nadu. It had 29.09 lakh foreign tourists visiting the state in 2014.
Akhilesh, for the first time, has planned to confer industry status to tourism sector in the proposed UP Tourism Policy.
This reflects the Chief Minister’s seriousness. The proposal is likely to be cleared by state cabinet soon.
As per the proposed policy, state government will give 15 per cent of bank loan amount, with maximum limit of Rs 10 crore, for setting up hotels in the Buddhist Circuit and Bundelkhand region.
For setting up hotels elsewhere in the state, the maximum limit of the amount will be Rs 7.50 crore.
Several other sops too are on offer for those willing to set up hotels. The state government will waive entertainment tax and luxury tax for five years. The machinery to be used in hotels will be made economical by reducing VAT by 30 per cent.
Moreover, land conversion cost will also be waived.
The policy promises time bound processing of the proposals for setting up hotel and states that all the necessary clearance will be granted in maximum 60 days.
“UP has large number of tourist attractions and the number of tourists visiting the state is increasing. The policy will offer guidelines and also incentives to those who promote tourism in the state,” Navneet Sehgal, Principal Secretary (Tourism) told SMEpost.com.
Similar rate of cash incentive of 15 per cent of the total bank loan will also be applicable to entrepreneurs who are setting up entertainment, amusement or theme parks in the state.
Travel agencies will also be treated as tourism unit and promoted under the tourism policy. Travel agents who run buses and cars for tourists, tourist packages and guides at historical places will also be promoted by the state government with incentives to be decided later.
UP government had formulated its tourism policy in 1998 but it was hardly implemented.
A detailed policy has been planned in 2016 which includes various tourism activities such as wayside amenities, tourist villages, theme and amusement parks, nature walk, city walk, heritage walk, cycle tours, traditional artisans’ haat, hotel management institute, paying guest accommodation, caravan, boat clubs, rope-ways, hot air balloon tours, spa and resort, and a convention center of upto 10,000 sqft area.
The Samajwadi Party government has already made changes in the existing film policy announcing upto Rs 2.5 crore subsidy based on the number of days a film is shot in the state.
A subsidy of Rs 1 crore is given if a filmmaker spends 50 per cent of the total number of dates allotted to shooting in UP. This is doubled, in case a filmmaker spends 75 per cent of the total number of film’s shoot days in the state.
Those filmmakers who return to shoot another film in UP are offered more incentives. A filmmaker shooting four films in UP can avail subsidy of Rs 2.5 crore for his last venture. If he comes back to shoot a fifth film here, the subsidy will be raised to Rs 2.75 crore.
