Team Herald
PANJIM: The State government has decided to introduce ‘one-point tax collection system’ from the Electronic Dance Music (EDM) festival organizers from the current year, in an attempt to plug the revenue leakages.
Tourism minister Dilip Parulekar also confirmed granting permissions to the organizers to hold the Sunburn and Supersonic events at Vagator and Candolim respectively.
“We will ask the organisers (of Sunburn and Supersonic EDMs) to deposit the tax for various government departments with Tourism Department. It will be a one-point collection spot from where the tax amount will be divided as per the rules laid down in various departments, and distributed accordingly,” Parulekar said responding to media questions about the distribution of taxes to government departments involved in giving NOCs for the beach events.
The new tax collection system will ensure that total tax collected is subsequently distributed to different government agencies like Police, Excise, Commercial Tax, Tourism, Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority, Health, etc, accordingly.
During the last meeting of the State Level Permission Committee headed by Chief Secretary R K Srivastava, the two organizers were asked to re-submit a comprehensive security as well as traffic plan since Goa Police had pointed out to various lapses in the arrangements. In the next meeting scheduled on December 18, the SLPC will discuss the revised plan for approval followed by officially granting them permission to hold the festival.
The two events will be held from December 27 to 30 at separate venues. The SLPC, it may be recalled has also suggested that the government take over deciding venues and dates for the EDMs from next year.
The government has also approved the Saturday Night Bazaar and Kite Festival besides another festival this tourist season.
