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| Saturday, 08 January 2005 |
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Travel and Tourism Diaster Fund needed The President of the Travel Agents Association of Sri Lanka (TAASL) has written to the Acting Minister Industry, Tourism, and Investment Promotion Arjuna Ranatunga requesting him to set up a Travel and Tourism Disaster Fund to compensate for the vast destruction that has taken place with the recent Tsunami to the Travel, Tourism and the Hotel Industry. There is no doubt that it will take a considerable period of time to restore, and bring back to normalcy, the reconstruction of the hotels, and other infrastructure facilities reasonably functioning. Since the cost for reconstruction will be enormous going into Billions, it may be desirable that a "Tourism Disaster Fund" be created with assistance from the ADB, World Bank or any other Financial Institution, Perera said. It will be desirable if the following steps are taken without delay, to seek funds from ADB or any other Financial Institution to create a "Tourism Disaster Fund" to be disbursed among those affected in the industry, mainly hotels, infrastructure, transport, and other related aspects of the industry. The funds to be monitored with the support of the Ministry of Tourism, the Tourist Board, and other Travel related Associations of Sri Lanka. The funds should be given as soft loans repayable over a period of 10 - 15 years at a very minimum interest with a grace period of 2 -3 years for repayment. Duty free concessions must be given for import of equipment, vehicles to hotel and other connected services in the Travel, Tourism, and Hotel Industry. At present, the duty free vehicles allocated over 5 years ago, to be granted exemption of duty on the sale of such vehicles, which will help the travel agents, hoteliers and others to sell such vehicles, and utilize such funds for reconstruction, and also help towards re-establishing services. The banking sector to be requested for rescheduling of all loans without any default interest, and such loans to commence repayment with a grace period of 2 -3 years. The 1% development levy on airline ticketing has been exempted by the Secretary, Ministry of Tourism. The exemption has not been effected as yet resulting in several travel agents being unable to obtain renewal of licenses from the Sri Lanka Tourist Board. Several agents are facing major problems due to the renewal not being granted by the Sri Lanka Tourist Board until the 1% levy on airline tickets is paid. It is earnestly requested that the Ministry of Finance approves the exemption granted. |
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