New tourism policy offers slew of sops for projects in Andhra Pradesh

Amaravati: The State Cabinet chaired by Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Wednesday approved a new tourism policy, gave a nod for paying input subsidy within a month of crop damage and to bring in changes to the State Survey and Boundary Act.

Briefing the media here on Friday after the cabinet meeting, Information and Public Relations Minister Perni Venkatramaiah said that incentives will be provided to the projects setting up in the State. Tourism projects with over Rs 400 crore would be called Mega Tourism projects. The incentives include, 100 per cent subsidy in SGST, 100 per cent reimbursement of Stamp Duty, electricity at Rs 2 per unit and 100 per cent waiving of land use conversion charges and the like. The cabinet also approved to increase the land lease period from 33 years to 99 years for mega projects in the tourism industry.

The Cabinet has approved a Rs198.50-crore relief and restart package for hotels, function halls and restaurants which are in a crisis due to outbreak of the pandemic. Through this package, loans from Rs 50,000 to Rs 50,00,000 would be provided to each unit and a moratorium of 6 months is provided and 4.5% of interest subsidy for the first year would be provided by the government.

The Minister said the cabinet has approved to conduct comprehensive land resurvey from December 21, 2020. The Cabinet has made five amendments to the Andhra Pradesh Survey and Boundary Act 1923 as per the needs of the resurvey to be conducted. Maps would be designed for every land based on sub-division and the boundary of the land would be tagged with GPS coordinates, he said. The Minister said the cabinet has approved a rejuvenation package for the film industry. Theatres closed in March are yet to reopen.