“We have taken up the matter regarding 5% service tax on hotel rooms with the finance minister,” Union Tourism Minister Subodh Kant Sahay was quoted saying in Business Standard.The move came following representations made by the hotel industry from various states like Uttarakhand, Kerala and Goa where the state governments also levy luxury and other taxes adding to the woes of the hoteliers, the report said.With new hotels facing the hassles of multiple approvals, the ministry has formed a Hotel Development and Promotion Board(HDPB) to facilitate clearances, the minister was quoted saying.The states have also been advised to introduce such a mechanism or a single window system for faster clearances.Sahay was quoted saying that the tourism sector in India was witnessing an encouraging growth with foreign tourist arrivals of 5.58 million last year.This was almost 10% higher than 2009, the year when the world financial turmoil was at its peak.”India’s share of international arrivals is only 0.5% of the global market, which is very small when we compare it with our country’s potential,” Sahaywas quoted saying at the sidelines of a conference.The ministry is planning to attract more foreign tourists to stay longer while they are in India and has set a target of 1% of the total world tourists in the next five years.To accommodate the increase in tourist arrivals, the capacity of hotel rooms would need to be raised to 500,000 in the next five year, he was quoted saying.Growth in tourism has also led to a gap in trained manpower in hospitality sector. According to Sahay, his ministry was planning to bridge this gap through various schemes and broad-basing of the hospitality education.
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