New Delhi, July 06: Giving a boost to adventure
tourism, the union budget for 2009-10 has exempted customs
duty on inflatable rafts, snow-skis, water skis, surf skis,
sail boards and other water sports equipment.
Tourism Ministry had sought exemption of adventure
sports equipment from customs duty to facilitate import of
these items in bulk for adventure tourism.
Tourism Minister Kumari Selja had met Finance Minister
Pranab Mukherjee last week to seek the expemtion of duty on
these items in the General Budget.
Currently, only members of Adventure Tour Operators
Association of India are allowed to import adventure equipment
on payment of custom duty. The cost of such import turns
out to be very prohibitive.
Vendors who can import these equipment in bulk are
not allowed to import. Consequently, there is a shortage of
modern adventure-related equipment.
The service tax exemption on inter-state or
intra-state transportation of passengers in a vehicle bearing
Contract Carriage Permit announced in the budget would also
benefit tourist bus operators.
While tourism was growing at an encouraging pace in
2007, global economic recession led to a fall in foreign
tourist arrivals and foreign exchange earnings later.
Against this background, Selja had asked the Finance
Minister to provide some incentives in the next Budget to
boost the tourism sector.
Though several regions have a tremendous potential of
adventure tourism, the growth is being hampered due existing
import policy.
Bureau Report
