Tourism sector gets Rs.1,070 crore
July 6th, 2009 - 8:58 pm ICT by IANS
New Delhi, July 6 (IANS) With a view to giving a fillip to the tourism industry, which is witnessing a downturn due to the global meltdown, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee allocated Rs.1,070 crore to the sector in the union budget he presented in parliament Monday.
Mukherjee also announced custom duty exemption for water and snow equipment to boost adventure tourism.
“We welcome the move to exempt custom duty for all water and snow equipment that are used in adventure tourism. It will give a boost to adventure tourism. It was a major demand of the ministry that has been fulfilled,” Tourism Minister Kumari Selja said here while welcoming the budget.
Selja had met the finance minister last month for budgetary sops, which included custom duty waiver for inflatable raft, snow skis, water skis, surf boat, sail board and other water sports equipment.
Also, exemption from service tax has been given to those vehicles bearing contact carriage permit and are plying inter-state and intra-state.
Of the total allocation of Rs.1,070 crore, Rs.304 crore has been allocated for overseas campaigns, as compared to Rs.285 crore last fiscal.
Promoting India abroad is a focus area for the tourism ministry, which plans to organise a series of roadshows to attract foreign tourists.
About 5.36 million foreign tourists visited India in 2008, recording a growth of 5.6 percent over the previous year. But January saw a 17.6 percent dip with only 487,262 arrivals.
In April, some improvement was witnessed, with 370,756 tourists visiting India - a drop of 3.5 percent over the same month the previous year.
- Tourism gets only a token increase (Lead) - Jul 06, 2009
- India approves Rs.200 crore for research on climate change - Mar 16, 2012
- Prominent highlights of 2012-13 budget - Mar 16, 2012
- Selja meets Pranab, asks for budgetary sops for tourism - Jun 26, 2009
- Tourism gets mere nine percent hike in budget - Mar 16, 2012
- Scope of exemptions enlarged to improve storage of agricultural produce - Feb 28, 2011
- Tourism gets Rs.91 crore more, focus on 'Incredible India' - Feb 26, 2010
- Budget has welcome and avoidable features: Karunanidhi - Mar 16, 2012
- Budget frees art from customs' shackles, frat upbeat - Feb 28, 2011
- Tourism gets 10 percent hike in budget - Feb 28, 2011
- Himachal's snowy slopes invite skiers (With Image) - Jan 11, 2012
- Indian aviation's MRO business set to soar - Apr 08, 2012
- Budget boost for women, child development programmes - Mar 16, 2012
- Budget highlights 8 - Mar 16, 2012
- State to sell 'Maharashtra Tourism' brand aggressively - Mar 26, 2012
Tags: adventure tourism, boat sail, fillip, finance minister, global meltdown, inter state, intra state, kumari, pranab mukherjee, sail board, snow equipment, snow skis, surf boat, tourism minister, tourism ministry, tourism sector, union budget, visiting india, water skis, water sports equipment