The Sikkim government has decided to levy a tourist tax on all visitors to the Himalayan state starting Thursday despite concerns raised by tourism stakeholders.

Tourist arrivals in the state have just started to peak.

The tax of ₹50 per tourist for the Tourism Sustainability Development (TSD) funds is to be collected at the time of booking or check-in by all hotels, homestays, guest houses and similar establishments.

The government has created a separate “ATITHI Guest Information System” to facilitate the collection process.

“Check-in should be strictly done through the online portal https://atithigis. sikkim.gov.in or through the “AtithiGIS’ mobile application, which is available for download on the Google Play Store,” read a notification issued by the department of tourism and civil aviation.

A “digital memento certificate” will be issued to those who pay the tax, which will be invested in the TSD funds to preserve Sikkim’s pristine landscape.

The department has decided to conduct a sensitisation programme and hands-on-training to all accommodation units on the use of the portal at Paratan Bhavan in Gangtok on Tuesday.

The government had tried to collect the tax from March 14, but with stakeholders flagging various concerns, the collection was deferred until now.

“We had earlier raised our concern, but the government seems determined to go ahead with the drive. We have decided to engage with the government and check the viability of the new process,” said a hotelier from Gangtok.

The tourism stakeholders had stated that the collection of tax would be an additional burden and that many small properties — homestays have also been brought under the tax purview — would find it difficult to implement it.

The hoteliers had raised issues like revenue leakage and fraud risks while implementing the same.

“Many hotels use a property management system (PMS) and booking software. Integrating them with the tourism department’s system for real time fee collection will require technical changes,” a representative of the hotel association of Sikkim had argued.

The hoteliers had instead suggested that the fees be collected at entry points, instead of “burdening hotels and homestays”, or integrated with entry permits to major tourist destinations.

The hoteliers said they had little knowledge of the new system.

“We plan to attend the training session tomorrow and understand the process,” said a hotelier.

Apart from Sikkimese citizens, children below the age of five and government employees on official tours would be exempted from paying the tax.

The process of collecting the tourist tax has not been successful even in Darjeeling.

The Darjeeling municipality has attempted to collect tourist tax at least four
times since 2008, but is yet to succeed because of a lack of a proper and transparent collection system.