The new tourism policy being prepared by the state govt aims to make Andhra Pradesh the best investment destination. As chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu recently announced ‘industry status‘ to the tourism sector, several investors are looking forward for the policy to be unveiled.
Previously, tourism sector was under the service category and it did not encourage private players to put big monies.
However, the new tourism policy is expected to change the equation and rope in big players with huge investments. The state govt is likely to extend all incentives including tax benefits, exemption from registration fees, rebate in land conversion charges that are being given to the industries. The state govt is also contemplating to grant land both on long-term lease basis and also on outright sale basis.
“Chief minister Chandrababu Naidu’s announcement on granting industry status to tourism sector is a big move to attract new investments. We have requested the officials to study the tourism policy of Tamil Nadu which offers a great deal for investors in the sector,” said RV Swamy, AP hoteliers’ association president.
The state govt has constituted a high-level committee to study the features of tourism policies of various states particularly Rajasthan, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. “We will discuss with the stakeholders before finalization of the policy. We are hopeful of bringing an attractive policy,” said tourism minister Kandula Durgesh. He said that AP could not tap its fullest potentiality in the tourism sector leaving it as a bystander.
Bhajan Lal Sharma, the chief minister of Rajasthan, aims to boost the state’s development through capital expenditure, new policies, and attracting investments. His government plans for new industrial and tourism policies and various sectoral policies. Upcoming investments in renewable energy and cement sectors are expected to generate over a million job opportunities. The state will hold the Rising Rajasthan Global Investment Summit in December.
The existing tourism policy will expire in March, 2025 (2021-25). However, the state govt is planning to unveil the new policy much before the expiry of the existing policy with new schemes and incentives to the investors. The previous govt signed about 117 MoUs with private players to invest around INR 17000 crore. The MoUs promised to generate employment to about 40,000 people. However, lack of support from the administration has made the investors retreat from launching their projects. “The senior officials, who headed the department, have not only discouraged the investors but humiliated us during the previous regime. We have signed MoUs to invest about INR 7,000 crore but none of the projects have received green signal from the bureaucrats. Our repeated requests with the CMO officials have failed to yield result in the last five years,” said PV Reddy, an industrialist.
According to information, just around 20 of the 117 MoUs materialized in the last five years. Projects with an outlay of just INR 3,000 crore were launched with the expected investment of INR 17,000 crore. “We will completely transform the situation by pumping confidence into the investors. We will tap investments into all segments of tourism sector,” said a senior official.
