Bhutan imposes Rs 1,200 daily fee on Indian tourists

Paro Taktsang, also known as the Taktsang Palphug Monastery and the Tiger's Nest, a popular tourist site located in the cliffside of the upper Paro valley in Bhutan. (Photo Courtesy: Douglas J. McLaughlin [CC BY-SA (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)] via Wikimedia Commons)

Morung Express News 
Dimapur | February 5

In what could be considered as a bad news those travelling to Bhutan, particularly from Nagaland for business and leisure, the lower house of Himalayan Kingdom on February 3 has passed a legislation that makes it mandatory for visitors from India, Bangladesh and the Maldives to pay a fee of Rs 1200 per day  from July this year. 

Bhutan, which is concerned about its ecology and environment, decided to impose the fee following an increase in Indian tourists for its SDF - "sustainable development fund," IANS news agency reported late Tuesday.  There was a ten per cent hike in the number of tourists from the three countries who visited Bhutan in 2018, it said. 

Citing government sources in New Delhi, the report further said that the 'Tourism Levy and Exemption Bill of Bhutan 2020' which the National Assembly of Bhutan is still discussing, imposes a "nominal" fee to develop tourism facilities and infrastructure.

 The bill includes additional provisions for visit of tourists from the region to Bhutan.

The Bhutanese authorities have assured the Indian government that "tourists from India would not be inconvenienced in the course of the implementation of the new regulation,” the IANS added. 

Meanwhile, The Indian Express, citing a Bhutanese newspaper Kuensel, informed that Bhutan received over 2 lakh “regional tourists” in 2018. 

Regional tourists refer to tourists from Bangladesh, Maldives and India.

Exemptions 
However, the report said that the new levy will not be applicable across Bhutan. 

“To promote tourism in the less popular Eastern Bhutan, the SDF will not be levied on tourists travelling to 11 districts in the region. This exemption will be applicable until December 2024, after which it will be up to the new government to decide if it continues” it said.

Also, while children below the age of five will be exempt, those between the ages of six and 12 years will have to pay a fee of Rs 600, it added. 

As of now, all foreign tourists in Bhutan, with the exception of Indians, Bangladeshis, and Maldivians, pay US $250 per person per day in the high season, and US $200 per person per day in the low season, according to The Indian Express. 

There has been concern in Bhutan over the impact that the massive influx of tourists can have on the country’s fragile Himalayan ecosystem. The bulk of the tourist inflow is from India — of the 2,74,000 tourists to Bhutan in 2018, over 1,80,000, or roughly 66 per cent, were from India, it said.

With Indians not paying visa fee, SDF, and the daily floor expenditure, this was a huge potential revenue stream going untapped, it added.