Why a Bill for mandatory registration of all tourism units, home stays is important in Himachal Pradesh

Chandigarh, December 21

A large number of tourists rush to Himachal Pradesh all through the year, but the actual number is not reflected in the room occupancy.

Time and again, hoteliers in the hilly state have complained that illegal tourist accommodation units have increased in the state, which has hurt the genuine business establishments.

The illegal and unregistered units offer huge discounts on rooms, which the hotels paying taxes cannot compete with. The units not registered with the government departments, under Home Stay and Bed and Breakfast (B&B) operate through personal online portals or word of mouth.

Also, last year during rains, the actual head count of tourists was not possible as most stayed in illegal establishments.

To curb this, the Himachal government on Wednesday tabled in the assembly a bill that seeks to make mandatory registration of all tourism units, including home stays.

The Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development and Registration (Amendment) Bill, 2023, also seeks to amend nine sections of the original 2002 legislation.

Units operating without registration will face action after the bill is passed into law. The operational units will be required to apply for registration within 30 days but these will not have to pay any fee till the expiry of the existing registration licence.

The registration of tourism units will have to be done within 90 days after fulfilling all the formalities.

Under the 2002 act, a provision of six months’ imprisonment and a fine of Rs 10,000 was made for units running without registration. The amendment seeks to do away with the provision for imprisonment but the fine amount will be increased to Rs 1 lakh.

Introducing the amendment bill, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Sukhu said the 2002 law had not been revised and the tourism sector had undergone tremendous changes since then in terms of its scope and the number of people involved.

Due to the proliferation of tourism units, the tourism department is facing challenges of regulations and registration, the chief minister said. With PTI inputs