While National Council shared their appreciation to the government for introducing Sustainable Development Fee of Nu 1200 for regional tourists, they also raised concerns over its impact, especially on local people.
The Tourism Levy Exemption (Amendment) Bill of Bhutan 2020 was introduced by the Finance Minister for deliberation in the National Council today.
The National Assembly during this session endorsed a new recommendation made by the Environment and Climate Change Committee of the House to effectively manage leisure tourists. This is irrespective of whether a tourist is a regional or international tourist. The recommendation was to introduce 25 per cent of the tourism levy of USD $ 65 per night halt on the regional leisure tourist visiting Bhutan. The other recommendation was also to introduce tax exemptions to tourists visiting five more Dzongkhags in addition to the already six eastern Dzongkhags.
While the National Council supported to levy sustainable development fee for regional tourists, they also shared concerns over people living in Southern Bhutan who frequently use Indian highway and, hoteliers that depend their business on regional tourists.
“People in the west and north will not be aware of this but people in southern Bhutan know it very well. Nowadays Bhutanese people can go to any place in India without any hindrance. But now when we charge them this kind of fees, this might have an impact on the future of Bhutanese people living there,” informed Jigme Wangchuk, the Deputy Chairperson of the National Council.
“We earn a little from regional tourists. But if this also decreases, some hoteliers have come to us and said that they might have to lock up their hotel and might have to submit it to the government. These are all concerns,” added Ugyen Tshering, the Member of Parliament of Paro.
To this, the Finance Minister said that the Foreign Ministry has already discussed these issues with the counterparts. As for the hoteliers, he added that the changes will also bring quality tourists in the country.
“If three to four hundred thousand people come in, we have to fit in 15 people where before five people used to accommodate. And 50 people in places where 15 people used to fit in. And this situation should be a concern for us. That’s why Nu 1200 fee is for that. We can’t guarantee if the hoteliers will face a negative impact due to this. There are possibilities that this might instead help them. Or they might also face negative effect. When they face a positive result, they keep the credits and when they face negative result, submitting their hotels to the government doesn’t make sense. If by chance, the business doesn’t work well due to this, the government has plans and ways to confront that too,” said Namgay Tshering, the Finance Minister.
The majority of the Member of Parliaments also raised issues on 11 Dzongkhags that were identified as a destination Dzongkhags. Following the Environment and Climate Change Committee’s recommendation, the government endorsed to waive off royalty for tourists visiting 11 identified Dzongkhags. Before it was just six Dzongkhags in eastern Bhutan.
The Bill was endorsed yesterday in the National Assembly.
Samten Dolkar.
