Utilize services fees from tourists to better serve them: Parliamentary panel

KATHMANDU, April  7: The parliament's International Relations and Labour Committee said Wednesday that the services fees collected from foreign tourists has not been utilized for the benefit of tourists and called for using it to increase services to them.

The committee instructed the government to utilize the funds from the service fees collected from tourists to maximize investment on tourism services. In a meeting held on Wednesday, the parliamentary panel also raised concerns over the possible misuse of the service fees collected from the foreign tourists.The committee has also sought clarification from the government for not implementing its earlier instructions to not reimburse the Trekkers' Information Management System (TIMS) fee to the Trekking Agencies' Association of Nepal (TAAN).

"The committee has decided to instruct the government to furnish clarification within 15 days for not implementing the earlier decision of the committee to not provide TAAN with the money collected from TIMS without conducting an audit on the TIMS money provided earlier," the committee said in a statement it issued on Wednesday.

Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) collects Rs 2,000 from each Free Individual Trekker (FIT) as TIMS fee and Rs 1,000 per trekker from Organized Trekker Group. NTB provides 30 percent of the total revenue collected from TIMS fees to TAAN. The committee had earlier instructed the government to not provide the TIMS fee to TAAN amid concerns that the fund was not being utilized properly.

The committee has also directed the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoCTCA) to furnish details and the basis for its budget allocation for the identification of tourist destinations, developing infrastructure, services to tourists and tourism promotion, among other programs, in the current fiscal year. The committee also said that the allocation of budgets in various programs without setting priorities was not in line with the tourism policy of the country.

"The committee has decided to direct the government to allocate and set the budget in the coming fiscal year in such a way that it helps meet objectives set in the tourism policy while keeping in view the regional balance and participatory approach needed in the programs," the panel said in its statement.

The parliamentary panel has also taken exception over the practice of distributing budgets in small project form. It directed the government to not allocate budget of less than Rs 1 million to a project or program in the budget for the upcoming fiscal year.

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