Bureau of Tourism is already seeing results of Memorandum of Agreement signed with Bureau of Revenue and taxation (BRT) last month where Tour Operators are liable to register with BOT before BRT can issue a license.
“We have received several tour operators that are finally being compliant thanks to the tax office adherence to the new process,” Director of Tourism Kevin Mesebeluu said.
Mesebeluu had previously told Island Times that in last four years BOT registered average 40 tour operators while the mandate is to register every single tour operator.
BRT is responsible agency to issue a business license and BOT is the agency to promulgate regulations in for the tourism sector. When Mesebeluu reached out to BRT, he found out that in total there are about 140-150 tour operators.
However, Mesebeluu added that even though the recently registered tour operators were a result of MOA, some of them were already conducting their business.
“Coming January where every business has to register for a new business license. We should see full compliance of all the tour operators in the country for the first time, that means we all will be operating on the same regulations. That is a big step,” Mesebeluu said.
Mesebeluu also added that awareness and education about the reforms is the primary step and then comes enforcement. (By Eshan Kalyanikar)