Tax Holiday for 5 star hotels in Delhi.

The Delhi government has been asked to extend tax holiday for all hotel categories, including five-star, specially in the national capital keeping in mind the requirements for the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

In the Budget of 2007-08, five-year tax holiday was given to two, three and four star hotels (but not too 5 star hotels) and convention centres with a seating capacity of not less than 3,000 in the NCR.

"This facility needs to be extended to all categories of hotels, including five-star hotels and bed and breakfast New Delhi, so that their capacity expansion takes place at a desired speed to accommodate large number of tourists expected during 2010 games," it said.

The hotel infrastructure, specially in five-star category and the Bnb's in Delhi and NCR where majority of tourists are likely to stay, is still not taking off and therefore to speed up their capacity, five years tax holiday schemes requires to be extended, it added.

A proposal has been sent to Ministry of Finance demanding that infrastructure status for hotel industry should not be delayed any longer, since the sector is highly capital intensive.

Each five star hotel is built with capital investments, ranging from Rs 300 crore to Rs 500 crore, it said.

As per the chamber estimates, keeping in mind the requirement of hotel rooms during the games, in NCR, around 27 new hotels are coming up with about 4,900 rooms in various categories over next three to four years.

As per estimates, the Commonwealth Games in 2010 is expected to attract 50,000 foreign visitors to Delhi and about 30,000 rooms would be required to accommodate these visitors.

The National Capital Region, currently, has about 10,500 rooms and an additional 15,000 to 18,000 rooms are required to take care of the foreign tourists during the event