MARGAO: Former deputy chief minister and Goa Forward Party (GFP) President Vijai Sardesai has demanded a complete rollback of the changes proposed to the Excise duties. Vijai said that the government is planning to finish off tourism in Goa totally and “conspiring to make people vegetarian”.
Commenting on the issues surrounding changes to Excise duties, Vijai said, “This BJP government wants to make Goans vegetarian. They have some sort of a conspiracy. This is a conspiracy to destroy Goa’s tourism. Don’t be ashamed, rollback.” “I am very shocked that a government that talks about taking views online did not take views from a section of the society which is primarily responsible for getting many tourists to Goa. I am not undermining Goan beaches, but one of the main incentives for the Indian tourists to come to Goa is that the liquor is of higher quality and cheaper,” Vijai said.
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“I think this government is completely rudderless and directionless; they don’t know what they are doing. First of all, these policies are being done by a person from New Delhi who is more interested in New Delhi than Goa.
“Revenue collection should be done from other sources. I don’t understand this move. Start recovering the mining loot. But by doing this you want to finish off tourism. BJP should be credited for having destroyed Goa’s economy in stages. Now what remains is only tourism and it wants to destroy that also,” Vijai alleged. “I don’t understand the logic of trying to tax the people having bigger restaurants. Are they not paying taxes? Do they not own the land or whether the government has given them? Their land is commercial which either is owned by them or bought from real estate market. The chief minister is taking online suggestions while it was expected that he goes to the affected parties,” Vijai said.
