The Governor of Lagos Akinwunmi Ambode has forwarded a draft bill to the Lagos State House of Assembly seeking to establish Lagos State Tourism Promotion Agency, which will regulate, license operators of tourism enterprises in the state.
The bill which was obtained by COMPLETE NEWS on Monday in Lagos states that the proposed agency will ,’ develop and promote Lagos State as a premier travel and tourist destination, Increase tourist arrivals and direct tourism investment, Explore and market tourism resources and products’ among others.
Ambode also states in the executive bill that the every tourism business in the state will henceforth register with the agency and get operational license which is renewable annually. The bill proposes N500,000 fine or six months imprisonment or both for any individual operators that contravene the law while a N1,000,000 is set as penalty for corporate entities that default.
Section 20 (1-4b) of the bill states, “ Every tourism enterprise operating in the state shall register with the Agency and be issued with a license.
“ The license issued accordance with the provision of subsection (1) of this sector shall be reviewed annually.
“Renewal shall cover from January to December every yearand the renewal fees shall be reviewed periodically.
“Any tourism enterprise that contravenes the provisions of this sectionshall be liable on a conviction to a fine of not less than: (a) Fine Hundred Thousand Naira (N500,000) or imprisonment for a term not less than six(6) months for an individual or both( b)One million naira (N1,000,000) for corporate bodies” .
Recall that about two month ago, Justice Rilwan Aikawa of the Federal High Court sitting in Lagos had granted an order of injunction restraining the Lagos State Government from enforcing the new Hotel Occupancy and Restaurant Consumption Law 2017 in the state.
In addition to the 5% Federal Value Added Tax, the Lagos State law imposes 5 % consumption tax on every purchase or service rendered by hotels , restaurants, fast food outlets, event centres, bars and night clubs.
The suit which was filed by the Hotels Owners and Managers Association of Nigeria asked the court to stop the government from ordering installation of Electronic Fiscal Device in their systems arguing it violates their rights to privacy and could compromise the confidential data of lodgers and other customers while making their databank vulnerable to hackers and other external attacks.
The aggrieved hotel owners who were miffed by the tax overdrive of the Governor Akinwunmi Ambode administration in Lagos amidst infrastructure challenges and hostile operating environment argued that the directive of the government mandating hotel owners to purchase the devises themselves from a sole government-preferred merchant, Mtech Communications is exploitative.
