Tourism Minister seeks Cabinet support for industry relief

• To submit two memos seeking Cabinet approval for a fresh round of relief in coming weeks
• Memos will propose to do away with local govt. taxes on industry and relief on electricity bills 

The tourism industry will receive a fresh round of relief, Tourism Ministry Prasanna Ranatunga said, as plans are afoot to propose to the Cabinet in the coming weeks to ease the financial burden faced by the industry stakeholders.

Ranatunga yesterday announced that two special Cabinet papers calling for the revision of the taxes levied by the local government on tourist hotels, restaurants and residences and further concessions on electricity bills would soon be presented. The latter has already been drafted, according to the Tourism Ministry.
 

The Cabinet paper on local government tax amendments will be submitted jointly with other key line agencies, institutions and ministries.

At present, a licence fee of up to one percent of the total turnover (of the previous year) is charged from tourist accommodation and service providers. The fee, in addition to several other taxes, is eating into the cash flows of the hard-hit tourism sector, making the revival effort increasingly challenging.

With regard to the concessions on electricity bills, Ranatunga said arrangements are being made to submit a Cabinet memorandum to extend the concessions that are already granted by the Ceylon Electricity Board to tourist hotels, restaurants and residences. 

Ranatunga also said he would seek the Cabinet approval to provide relief for tourist hotels, restaurants and residences registered with the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) by allowing them to pay all outstanding electricity bills from March 2020 to December 31, 2021, in 36 equal instalments, starting next year.

Although the entities may fall short in settling the bills, the CEB has been requested not to disconnect electricity connections within the relief period.

10K tourist arrivals in Dec. first week

In the first week of December, Sri Lanka has opened its doors to over 10,000 tourists, shared the Tourism Ministry.
The ministry said that from December 1 to 5, a total of 10,201 international visitors have entered the country.
For the first five days of the month, tourist traffic was generated by India, Russia, the United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, Kazakhstan, the United States, France, the Maldives and Spain.