Govt looking at easing tourist visa to garner foreign exchange

PlanCom calls for a joint meeting of various ministries

Battling rising current account deficit (CAD), government is looking at ways to encourage tourist inflow particularly from the West to garner foreign exchange and steps may be taken to ease visa regime.

Taking an initiative in this direction, the Planning Commission has called a joint meeting of Home Ministry, External Affairs Ministry, Tourism Ministry and National Security Advisor in the first week of October.

The officials will discuss issues related to tourist visas and ways to improve access to that for encouraging foreigners to choose India for holidaying during the meeting.

"We have called a meeting in October to discuss issues related to tourist visa for India. We are expecting Tourism Ministry, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman and other senior officials from concerned ministries to attend the meeting," Planning Minister Rajeev Shukla told PTI.

CAD is the difference between inflow and outflow of foreign exchange. During the 2012-13, the CAD was at all time high of 4.8 per cent of GDP or $88.2 billion. Government proposes to bring it down to $70 billion or 3.8 per cent of the GDP.

"Tourism Ministry has flagged strict tourist visa regime as impediment in the growth of foreign visitors in the country which ultimately results is lesser foreign exchange earnings," he added.

According to Shukla, the tourism potential of India could not be exploited due to strict tourist visa regime and the country has everything including beaches, backwaters, snow, desert and different weathers, which attract foreign tourists.

Shukla said that restoring India's foreign missions' flexibility in granting tourist visa would further help in attracting more visitors which would result in bridging CAD.

According to the minister, the officials would also deliberate on increasing the tourist visa on arrival regime with other countries to boost the sector.