Excelsior Correspondent
KATRA, Aug 17: The Chamber of Tourism Trade and Industry Katra convened a crucial meeting of its office bearers to discuss the Draft Notification of J&K Tourist Trade Rules dated 30-07-2024.
The meeting, chaired by Raj Kumar Padha, President, and attended by the key members, expressed concerns and objections to various aspects of the draft rules.
“The current draft of the J&K Tourist Trade Rules has raised several issues that could hinder the ease of doing business and adversely impact the sector’s overall development,” said the Chamber and stressed the importance of a robust regulatory framework for the tourism industry, which is a cornerstone of Jammu & Kashmir’s economy.
The Chamber put forward a series of suggestions aimed at refining the proposed rules to better align with the needs of the industry, while ensuring sustainability and high standards.
Key suggestions included; revision of the registration and renewal fees for trade units and service providers, gradual fee increase instead of a 10 percent increase every two years, implementation of a risk-based approach to inspections , flexibility in the requirement for a multicuisine restaurant cum coffee shop and a specialty restaurant, reduce the mandatory air conditioning requirement from 75 percent to 50 percent, providing exemptions or alternatives to the bar and non-vegetarian item requirements for the four-star category hotels due to Katra’s religious significance, revising the supervisory staff requirement from 20-80 percent to 10-50 percent and skilled staff from 20-60 percent to 10-40 percent, encourage hotels to invest in regular staff training supported by Government incentives, reclassify X-ray machines and telephones in toilets as desirable safety features rather than mandatory requirements, alternative safety measures, a swift and transparent turnaround time for the registration and renewal of tourism licenses for encouraging new businesses and availability of checklists in draft notification for inviting objections and suggestions.
The meeting was attended by Rajnish Purohit (General Secretary), Shiv Kumar Sharma (Mentor), Babu Ram Sharma (Senior Vice President), Ramnik Sharma (Treasurer),Manav Sanmotra (Legal Advisor) Karan Vaid (Secretary), Atul Sharma (Secretary), Susheel Dubey, Vishal Kapoor, Vivek Gupta, Rattan Sharma and Neelam Singh (Executive Members).
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