Presently the second most-visited state by foreign tourists, Maharashtra aspires to occupy the top position in the state-wise chart in the tourism sector of India. State’s tourism minister Girish Mahajan says that implementation of the New Tourism Policy (NTP) will generate 18 lakh jobs, increase investment and tourist flow into the state.
The policy’s main objective is to double the inflow of visitors by development of tourist places and infrastructure in ten years and to generate direct and indirect jobs in rural and urban areas, he has explained. Mahajan’s announcement has come days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a few days ago in Mumbai that he would like Maharashtra to become the leading state in the tourism map of the country. Equally significant is the fact is that the state will be going in for the legislative assembly election in a few months.
Under the NTP, small, medium, large, mega and ultra-mega projects have been divided into A, B and C categories. They will be promoted on the basis of investment and employment generation potential. The policy promises concessions in various taxes including interest refund, state GST refund and electricity tax.
In addition, the state government will offer capital investment incentives for the tourism sector, refund of CGST tax, discount on electricity tariff, financial incentives for micro, small and medium enterprises, interest and subsidy incentives. Also, there will be additional incentives for women entrepreneurs, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, differently-abled entrepreneurs, domestic and foreign tourism exhibitions, travel incentives to tourism stakeholders for participation in Show Marts, Rural Tourism Melas and like activities.
Mahajan listed out the pattern of incentives. Thus, the state government will provide incentives for organising Annual Melas (up to Rs 15 lakh each), stamp duty and registration fee waivers, incentives for youth tourism, awards for tourism development, incentives for skill development programmes, incentives for research in tourism-hospitality industry (up to Rs 10 lakh), incentives for information and communication technology empowerment (up to Rs 10 lakh), incentives for revival of rare arts, culture and cuisine (up to Rs 5 lakh) as well as incentives for innovative products and services (up to Rs 50,000). Moreover, the government will provide incentives for providing employment to the disabled, incentives for eco-tourism certification (up to Rs 10 lakh) and incentives for agriculture, caravans and adventure tourism.
Mahajan said that the government proposes to give various awards in order to develop sustainable and responsible tourism of the highest quality in the state and thereby provide a boost to tourism in rural areas, besides encouraging agro tourism. This will supplement tourism industry growth in rural areas, encourage home stay and handicraft sector.
A glance at the number of foreign tourist visits in India in 2022 shows that Gujarat was at the top position by welcoming 1.78 million visitors from abroad. Maharashtra followed it with 1.51 million visitors. The other states were (figures in millions) : West Bengal 1.04, Delhi 0.82, Uttar Pradesh 0.65, Tamil Nadu 0.41, Rajasthan 0.40, Kerala 0.35, Punjab 0.33 and Madhya Pradesh 0.2. In the same year, the number of foreign tourist arrivals in India was around 6.19 million.
Tourism has been identified as a crucial sector to take the state’s GDP growth from 9 percent to 14 percent. The NTP will thus boost the state’s plan to achieve the $1 trillion dollar economy target. The policy provides significant incentives for several tourism-related projects:
Up to Rs. 20 crore or 20 percent of eligible capital investment for hotels, motels, hostels, youth clubs, log cabins and cottages
Up to 15 percent of capital investment or up to Rs.15 crore for restaurants, food stalls, food courts, MICE centres, amusement parks, golf courses, shopping malls, cultural centres, multiplexes, handicraft shops, theatres and art galleries
Additional incentives include:
– SGST reimbursement from 50 percent to 100 percent, depending on the size of the project
– Electricity tax/tariff discounts from 50 percent to 100 percent, based on project size
– Interest discounts up to 5 percent on loans ranging from Rs.5 crore to Rs.25 crore
– Additional FSI from 3 to 5 in Mumbai and up to 4 in rest of Maharashtra.
In view of the competition, the NTP focusses on attracting tourists from within the country and the state itself, promoting trade-income and entrepreneurship, creating employment opportunities in rural and urban areas, bringing new investments in the tourism sector, increasing the revenue of the state.
The government plans to develop tourism, based on local folk culture considering the diverse, multi-provincial and multilingual culture of the state. Further, the policy also lays emphasis on enhancing innovation, productivity and competitiveness through the use of digital technologies.
The government aims to create an enabling environment for private sector investment with the institutionalisation of a single window system, which will be affiliated with the Maitri system of the Union government.
The NTP aims to generate One Lakh Crore rupees in investments and creation of 1.8 million jobs in the next decade. The policy is designed to contribute substantially to Maharashtra’s goal of becoming a $1 trillion dollar economy by 2028. It focuses on developing robust infrastructure and working with various stakeholders, including tour operators and MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences, exhibitions) organisers, to multiply revenue in their respective sectors.
A novel feature of the policy will be promoting caravan and adventure tourism, which are almost non-existent so far in Maharashtra. Rural development is a key focus, with plans to promote local culture, arts, cuisine and festivals. The policy document says that rural tourism and homestays will be part of the promotion. Following the example of the Mumbai Festival, other major cities such as Nagpur will organise their own festivals, besides plans for monsoon and Ganesh festivals to boost tourism, according to the blue print of the NTP.
The NTP is a bold step and such a boost was needed for the growth of the tourism sector in Maharashtra. Its implementation and success will be watched with considerable interest.
A Column By
Dilip Chaware – Senior Editor
A media professional for 43 years, with extensive experience of writing on
a variety of subjects; he is also a documentary producer and book author.
