Karnataka - Mysore   

Hike in entry tax for vehicles may cast its shadow on Dasara

MYSORE: The State Government’s recent decision to hike the entry tax for tourist vehicles is expected to cast its shadow on the annual Dasara festival scheduled to be held in second week of October.

With the number of tourists arriving in Mysore registering a decline during the tourist season of April-May this year, the Tourism Department authorities have expressed concern over the adverse impact of the hike on the Dasara festival.

If the number of visitors to Mysore Palace, a favourite destination among tourists, particularly from neighbouring Kerala, went up from 4,62,457 during the April-May 2005 to 5,03,035 during the same period in 2006, registering an increase of 8 per cent, the number of visitors to the palace dipped to 4,93,634 during the same period this year after the hike in entry tax came into force.

The hike in entry tax for tourist vehicles, which makes each tourist pay Rs. 330 against the previous Rs. 110, came into force from April 1 this year, after Deputy Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa revised the entry tax structure in the budget.

Under the new tax structure, a 50-seater tourist bus entering the State will have to pay an entry fee of Rs. 16,500 against the previous Rs. 5,900. Though the dip in the number of visitors to the palace was put at a marginal two per cent, the department officials said the number of tourists visiting the palace should have crossed 5.5 lakh at the present growth rate of about 8 per cent a year.

“Instead, it declined by two percent,” an official of the department said and expressed fear of the downward trend hitting the Dasara festival later this year.

The number of tourists to Mysore Zoo, which went up to 4,36,208 during April-May 2006 from 4,02,415 during April-May 2005, surged to 4,64,489 during the tourist season of April-May this year.

However, the tourism officials say that the number of tourists to the zoo would have crossed the five lakh mark if the hike in entry tax for tourist vehicles had not been effected.

But, the department officials admitted that the tourist vehiclesthat used to throng popular centres of tourist attraction in Mysore had become fewer since April this year.

Meanwhile, travel agencies and tour operators in Mysore have submitted a memorandum to the department authorities in Mysore to press for withdrawal of the hike.

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