Tourism to be included in the concurrent list of the constitution

Wednesday, August 4, 2021

For meeting the demand of hospitality and tourism sector and to move ahead, the ministry of tourism has initiated a proposal for including tourism in the Concurrent List of the Constitution. This move will allow both the Center and the states to devise policies that could benefit the sector that has faced a harsh impact due to the pandemic.

“The Ministry of Tourism has taken up the issue of inclusion of tourism in the Concurrent List with the ministry concerned, so that tourism can be placed on the national agenda,” said the tourism ministry in a reply to a Parliamentary Standing Committee.

Currently, the travel and tourism sector is mostly treated as a state issue. However, multiple industry bodies including Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) suggested that the sector should be included in the Concurrent list of the Constitution so that useful policies can be made to standardize it.

“The Committee takes note of the submission of the Ministry that a proposal for inclusion of tourism in the Concurrent List has been initiated. The Committee sincerely hopes that the proposed measure will provide a level playing field to all the hotels which have been badly hit by the ongoing covid-19 pandemic. The Committee desires to be kept apprised of the efficacy of the new measures proposed,” the Parliamentary committee said in its report tabled on Tuesday.

“The Ministry should inform the committee of the bottlenecks being faced in the same and reasons for the delay,” the report stated.

Various hospitality associations earlier requested the finance ministry to provide infrastructure status to hotels with higher than Rs. 25 crore investment, excluding land. Currently, only those hotel projects with investment of more than Rs. 200 crore acquire infrastructure status which restricts the benefits to luxury hospitality firms.

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