House passes bill; maximum fine for violations raised to Rs 1 lakh
PANAJI
Super sensitive to critical content on Goa’s tourism brand, the State government has empowered itself with legislative backing to crack the whip on a wide set of activities in touristic places terming them ‘nuisance’ and raising the fine limits to up to Rs 1 lakh.
In addition to hiking the fines, the new piece of legislation also seeks to make applicable punishment under the BNS, the new criminal law that replaced the Indian Penal Code which entails ‘imprisonment’ for up to one year.
On Friday, the Goa legislative assembly passed The Goa Tourist Places (Protection And Maintenance) (Amendment) Bill, 2025 which was introduced by Tourism Minister Rohan Khaunte earlier this week. In it the clause which defines ‘nuisance’ has been replaced to include a whole set of new activities including coercing, pestering or attempting to force tourists to purchase goods or services; cooking in open spaces, littering waste including empty bottles and garbage in public.
Some other activities included as ‘nuisance’ include engaging in touting or sale of cruise boat tickets or any other activity to tourists from places other than authorised ticketing counters or offices, begging in a manner that causes annoyance or inconvenience to public, selling goods from unauthorised handcarts, driving unauthorised vehicles on beaches and obstructing movement of tourists.
The bill piloted by Tourism Minister Rohan Khaunte increases the maximum limit of the penalty to be levied on violators to Rs 1 lakh.
“Violators shall be punishable with a fine of Rs 5,000 which may extend to Rs 1,00,000 and shall be also liable for punishment under section 223 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (Central Act 45 of 2023),” the amended section states.
The bill also introduces a whole new section 10A in the principal Act by which the government is empowered to revise the fines once every two years.
The fine as provided in this Act shall be evaluated by the Government in consultation with the Competent Authority, every two years, and may be increased by such amount, not exceeding ten per cent in value of the existing fine, as may be prescribed.”
