PANAJI - Neither Goa Chief Minister Digambar Kamat nor the captains of industry have acknowledged any specific benefit to the state’s crucial tourism industry in the union budget presented Monday.

While the Congress chief minister in his formal reaction welcomed the budget for its thrust on rural development and listed a string of generic highlights, Kamat failed to acknowledge how the financial exercise would specifically benefit Goa.

The Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry has categorically said that the budget brought no cheer to Goa.

“There is nothing in the budget for Goa to cheer about. Though Goa ranks very high as an international tourist destination, there is hardly any tourism infrastructure,” a GCCI spokesman said.

The spokesman further said that the finance minister had failed to look at requests made by the GCCI for tax exemption under Section 80 IB to industries coming up in the five backward talukas (blocks) of Goa.

“This could have helped create employment for local youth. However, this has not happened. We sincerely hope that our representatives in the parliament will be able to convince the finance minister about Goas needs, the GCCI said.

President of the Trade and Tourism Association of Goa (TTAG) Ralph DSouza admitted that the budget had no specific relief for Goa, adding that demands made by the state to the finance ministry for improving tourism infrastructure had fallen on deaf ears.

Two specific proposals which were forwarded by Goa were not taken into consideration by the finance minister, Ralph told reporters. Now we have to be clever enough to utilize the Rs.1,00,000 crore set aside for developing infrastructure in the states. We could use the finances to develop hinterland tourism, DSouza said, emphasizing that Goa would have to think of ways to tap the increased funding set aside for infrastructure development in the budget.

We have to use the monies to create infrastructure in Goas rural areas, which will help in easing tourism away from the already congested urban regions, DSouza said.

DSouza also said that Goa, with its rich heritage, should also utilize the increased funding for conservation of its architectural heritage in the budget as a potential means of earning tourism revenue.

The lack of attention given to Goa by the central government had already been highlighted by the two Congress MPs Francisco Sardinha (Lok Sabha) and Shantaram Naik (Rajya Sabha), both of whom had expressed disappointment with Mamata Banerjees railway budget.

Goa shouldn’t be considered as a passing station and used only as a corridor. We need to have a few trains that start from Goa, Naik had said.

–Indo Asian News Service