TravTalk India Online Magazine
Maharashtra’s Directorate of Tourism has initiated the audit of hotels in the state for awarding industry status to them.
TT Bureau
The Directorate of Tourism (DoT), Maharashtra Tourism, Government of Maharashtra, is finally kick-starting the inspection of hotels for awarding industry status to them. The Tourism Directorate of Pune is the first one to commence the inspection on August 3 and 4, 2022.
Total 181 non-classified hotels have registered and applied since June 2021 in Pune region.
The Government of Maharashtra had awarded Industry status to the hospitality sector in the April 1999, but that remained on paper for a long time. In 2020, there was a development in the decision when the state government issued the Government Regulation announcing the criteria for levying taxes and charges at the industrial rate for the
non-classified hotels. Since then, non-classified hotels were appealed to register and apply to avail the benefits. And now, as the regional offices have received a considerable number of registrations, the inspection committee will begin their site visits soon.
The committee will be chaired by the Deputy Directors of the respective regions, a representative of the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) department, regional representative of Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB), local representative of Hotel and Restaurant Association (HRA) and a representative of Tour Operator Association (TOA). The agency QualStar has prepared a roadmap for inspecting sites, which will be followed by the committee.
Dr. Dhananjay Sawalkar, Joint Director, Directorate of Tourism (DoT) informed, “So far, 446 applications across Maharashtra have been received by DoT. After inspection, if these hotels fulfil all the said criteria, they will be eligible to receive industrial status. This will make electricity charges, water bill, property tax and non-agricultural tax available to the registered hotels as per industrial rates.”
Supriya Karmarkar, Deputy Director of Pune Region, has appealed the hoteliers to apply for industrial status by visiting the official website of ‘Maharashtra Tourism’ at https://www.maharashtratourism.gov.in and submitting the online application form along with all the required documents. Industrial concessions will be applicable from the date of registration certificate of the applicant hotel. Interested hoteliers should check the criteria on the official website of the government https://www.maharashtra.gov.in/1145/Government-Resolutions.
