Maharashtra tourism minister Aaditya Thackeray has expressed his opinion on the Budget 2021-22, which was presented by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Parliament yesterday.
His party has criticised the Centre saying that the Budget 2021 was more focused on poll-bound states -- Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal and Aaditya Thackeray expressed his disappointment with the outlay for the tourism sector in Budget 2021.
Replying to a tweet by Congress leader Rukshmanii Kumari, Thackeray wrote that there is nothing for the tourism sector "either in the budget, or in the ₹20 lakh crore package announced earlier."
Kumari on Tuesday took to Twitter and wrote, "Nothing on tourism in the budget. Absolutely nothing. #Budget2021." Replying her, Thackeray wrote, "Neither in the budget, nor in the ₹20 lakh crore package announced earlier."
The tourism, travel and hospitality industry was looking at support for immediate and short term measures for critical revival. This has not happened in the budget announcements.
The budgetary allocation for the ministry of tourism has been slashed from Rs 2,500 crore in 2020-21 to Rs 2026.77 crore this year, in a blow to the tourism industry which is reeling from huge losses due to the coronavirus crisis.
The revised estimate for the ministry was Rs 1,260 crore.
The budget has allocated Rs 1088.03 crore for development of tourism infrastructure.
With the coronavirus crisis restricting not just foreign tourist footfalls into the country but also keeping domestic travellers at bay, the budget has focused on pushing funds for promotion and publicity to help woo tourists back.
Out of the Rs 668.72 crore allocated towards promotion and publicity, Rs 524.02 crore is for the overseas market and Rs 144.70 crore has been kept for domestic tourists.
(With inputs from PTI)
