Cruz Cardozo of the Goa beach shack owners
association said they had given a representation to the tourism minister last
week and they wanted to open shacks as soon as possible. He said “A lot of
tourists have been enquiring whether the shacks will be operational this
season. I think once the shacks are open, people will come to Goa. Normally we
open shacks in September and please remember we did not have a very good season
over the last two years, we requested the government to release the licences as
soon as possible”. The government he said was ready to comply with their
request and the CM said he would look into the matter. The tourism minister
promised to fulfill their demand. He said in the last two years they did not
face any problem from the government but the pandemic created problems. With
regards to the letter he said the authorities were moving the papers. Opening
shacks early would help spread the word around and bring in tourists.
John Lobo, another shack operator, said he would be putting up a
shack this year. He said “The last two years were terrible and even this year
is going to be bad because the pandemic is still not over. The wave will come
and we have requested the government to wave off our license fees. For two
years we have suffered losses. The first year we paid the full amount and the
last two months we could not do any business. We paid excise fees for the whole
season but we had to stop abruptly and even the last season we had the same
problem. The government gave us a good fifteen percent discount on the fees.
Last year we paid Rs 55,000 after the discount but the government raised the
excise fees, electricity deposits and everything, ultimately it turned out
there was hardly any discount”. He added that all the shack owners were forced
to put up the shacks even if they did not want to. The shack owners who
depended entirely on foreign tourists dismantled their shack after a month
because no one flew in. This was true in parts of Candolim, half of Calangute,
parts of South Goa where there are only foreign tourists. Asked if he would get
a wave off, he said they had to get it because last season they had paid for
the entire season but had to shut by April. He said every year; they were
paying more than a lakh as fees which was basically for six months business. He
said they had also demanded an extension of their contract for another two
years for the same parties because the last two years were an absolute washout.
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Seby from Candolim, another shack operator, said business for
him was ok over the past two years and they would have to continue to rely on
Indian tourists for business. He said everything depended on how the virus
would react in the next couple of months. He said he was hoping for the best.
Inas from Betalbatim said this was the last year of his license
and the last two years were very bad. He said was adopting a wait and watch
policy because he said even if people came they were not spending as much as
before and they had not been able to enjoy a full season of business for two
years.
Dharmesh Saglani, owner of Cuba shacks in South Goa had much to
say about the state of affairs. The President of All Goa Private Property
shack/Huts owners association said he was not able to talk to the authorities
because they were busy in their political preparations. He said they had
received a notice from the tourism department regarding the registration of the
shacks and huts within fifteen days. If this was not done a fine of one lakh
would be levied. He said “The tourism department does not know by the time they
start the season and start obtaining all the licences, we have to receive
licences from all the departments like local bodies, excise department, food and
drugs health, fire and then we have to register with the tourism department. To
obtain this license it takes three to four months. Tourism department wants us
to submit it in fifteen days which is out of the question”. To add to their
problems, he said the tourism department had sent a letter to booking.com the
main portal from where they get their bookings in advance not to show their
properties online until they were registered with the tourism department. He
said he brought this up when he met the CM but no action had been taken. He
said they wanted the tourism department to waive off the license fee for this
year. The season he said did not look good because domestic tourists only came
on weekends. The state government needed to talk to the central government and
start charter flights if they wanted revenue from the industry.
It
does not look very bright and one can only hope the situation improves in time.
The alternative to that was just catastrophic to contemplate.
