The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Hotels association lists out suggestions to Government

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jul 11, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Hotels association lists out suggestions to Government

Special Correspondent

CHENNAI: T he South India Hotels and Restaurant Association (SIHRA) has come out with eight suggestions to make the Tamil Nadu tourism sector attractive for private and foreign investment.

SIHRA president M.P. Purushothaman, in a presentation to the Tamil Nadu Tourism Department at a recent workshop, urged the State Government to identify suitable land throughout the State and allot it to private bodies for developing hotels.

He sought a single window clearance with attractive incentives for tourism projects, increased floor space index (FSI) for hotels (as was being done by the Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra Governments), tax holiday for five years (as in Andhra Pradesh) for new hotel projects and 50 per cent concession on land registration charges.

He urged the Government to rationalise both luxury and sales tax. Luxury tax should be levied at 10 per cent of the actual room tariff, with a threshold limit of Rs.1,000, and sales tax at 5 per cent. He sought electricity at industrial rate and not commercial one.

He wanted bar rules to be liberalised by permitting star hotels to operate bars at extended timings as most of the inbound international flights landed late at night.

He urged the State Government to consider giving permits for beer and wine to be served freely in stand-alone, approved restaurants as was being done in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Pondicherry. Mr. Purushothaman said south India had 510 approved hotels with 31,000 rooms. Tamil Nadu had 194 hotels with 7,500 rooms. Chennai city had 75 approved hotels with 5,300 rooms.

He pointed out that industrial expansion in secondary cities — Coimbatore, Madurai, Tiruchi, and Salem — was exerting pressure on hotel rooms in Chennai, which continued to be the most convenient transit point.

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