Times of India: New Delhi: Thursday, 28 January
2016.
It took upto
a decade for the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to revise entry ticket
charges to ticketed monuments. However, despite a gazetted notification for the
same issued last year to increase entry ticket rates three-folds, the prices
remain unchanged till date. The new entry rates were supposed to be effective
from November 1, 2015 and ASI's reluctance to implement the same is causing the
organization losses upto Rs 20 crore every month.
ASI has 119
ticketed monuments in its jurisdiction, out of which 32 sites are Unesco world
heritage properties. According to sources, the daily revenue earned from ticket
sales at these sites is approximately Rs 25-30 lakh. This figure goes up
substantially in the peak tourist months of October to March.
"Had the
ticket prices been revised from November, ASI would have earned upto an
additional Rs 50 lakh daily. On a monthly basis, the loss in revenue by not
revising ticket prices comes to approximately Rs 15-20 crore," said
sources. The additional revenue earned from ticketed monuments would have gone
a long way in funding conservation and upkeep of over 3,600 centrally-protected
monuments, many of which are in shambles and in dire need of repairs.
Additional funds could also led to bringing in more manpower to protect these
sites. ASI has been alleging they were were short-handed for years.
There is no
word in why ASI has not revised entry ticket prices despite a gazetted
notification issued. Sources in ASI admitted that the implementation was
supposed to be in effect from November 1 last year, and in all probability
would be effected from the new fiscal of 2016-17. Senior officials declined to
comment citing bureaucratic issues. TOI filed an RTI with ASI on November 14,
2015 to assess 'why the notified increase in entrance fee has not yet been
implemented'.
The RTI
application also requested information on 'any order/ file notings/ordering
delay of implementation of the increase in entrance fee and to provide
documents with ASI estimates for increase in daily revenue from entrance
tickets once the increase in entrance fee is implemented at monuments across
India'. But till date, ASI has not replied to the RTI with the exception of an
interm reply on December 7 that the 'file concerning entrance fee for ticketed
monuments was under submission and information would be sent once file was replied
back'.
Sources said
that the tourism lobby was opposed to the move, fearing it could affect their
clientele and a presentation was made to the ministry of culture to reconsider
the move. "We met the culture minister Mahesh Sharma and asked him to reconsider
the issue of hiking ticket prices by 300%. Tourism is already down and with
this increase in price, many clients will cancel proposed trips. The minister
said he would look into our concerns and deferred the move to hike prices from
November 1 to April 1, 2016 and ASI said they would review it. Our delegation
met the minister again this week to ask him to reconsider the price hike again.
It is under consideration," said Ravi Gosain, joint secretary of Indian
Association of Tour Operators.
Another tour
operator said it would have affected their business. "Foreign tourists
book their holidays average 5-6 months in advance. All indian tour operators
have to bear this extra expenses from their own pocket. For example Golden
Triangle (Delhi-Agra-Jaipur) is mostly visited tourist circuit among foreign
tourists and only on this circuit the total increase will be approximately Rs
3,000 per person, so if one company handles 100 tourists, they have to bear
loss of Rs 300,000. Secondly, if tour operators asks for this increase from
tourist, they will feel cheated and subsequently may cancel their trips. This
will give extremely bad image to India globally," said an operator.
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