PANAJI:  Expressing strong resentment over the Captain of Ports’ notification of doubling charges, includes taxes, to over Rs 80 lakh a year by each tourist boat for using the tourism  jetty in Panaji, and enforcing ludicrous rules, the Cruise Boats’ Association of Goa is apprehensive that it would completely jeopardise the cruise boat business in the state.

Though the Chief Minister, Mr Digambar Kamat, the Tourism Minister, Mr Francisco Xavier Pacheco and the secretary of tourism and ports, Dr M Modassir have assured amendments to the notification, the association secretary, Mr Anil Madgavkar termed the notification as a hindrance to the growth of the industry and is likely to put some boat operators out of business.
Mr Madgavkar said, “The government came out with the notification without even taking the stakeholders into confidence.”
Naive operators of the cruise boats using the Panaji jetty since 1995 were not aware of the high fees that they would have to pay for using the tourism jetty. River cruise is Goa’s only tourism entertainment and we have been taxed the most and the worst for the past 15 years… presently each boat is paying 35 per cent of its annul turnover which roughly works out from  Rs 60 lakh  to Rs 70 lakh, said Mr Madgavkar.
In 1995, Dr Wilfred D”Souza converted a fishing jetty into the present tourism jetty giving the cruise boat operators the right to berth.  
“Over the past 15 years we have been taxed the most to the present 35 per cent of our turnover. Through the notification the wharfage charges has gone up by 5000 per cent from 50 paisa per tonne to Rs 25 per tonne per trip. Also the rental for the jetty has gone up forcing us to berth in the middle of the river,” he informed.
It would be chaos if all 20 CBAG boats park in the middle of the river. The notification states that the only alternative would be to park at the jetty at a price of Rs 2,000 an hour that would amount to Rs 48,000 per day, Rs 15 lakh a month and more than Rs 80 lakh yearly, which may not be operating turnover of some boat owners.
The CBAG comprises of five big boats and about 50 small boats.   
In the past two days the meetings with the Chief Minister, the Tourism Minister and the secretary of tourism and ports assured us that the notification would be cancelled and amended, he said.
The CBAG protest has also been strongly supported by the Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Travel and Tourism Association of Goa and the Goa Barge Owners Association. The GBOA president, Mr Atul Jadhav said if the Goa Maritime Board was formed such an embarrassment would not have occurred.