The short life investment package (SLIP) tax holiday available to new hotels will be extended to investors who acquire existing hotels and resorts and undertake extensions and refurbishments over $50million.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Prof Biman Prasad announced this hotel incentive in his 2024-25 National Budget address yesterday saying that will support major investments like Crowne Plaza and Wananavu Resort.
“At a time when we need more capacity in the tourism sector, we encourage investors to take advantage of this,” Mr Prasad said.
He said the standard allowance for renovations and extension of hotels will be reduced from 50 per cent to 25 per cent, similar to pre-COVID levels.
“To support construction and bring down building costs, the fiscal duty on prefabricated buildings will reduce from 32 per cent to 5 per cent while fiscal duty on steel structures or articles of iron will be maintained at 5 per cent,” Mr Prasad said.
He also announced the increase in departure tax to $170 from $140, effective from August 1, 2024; and will return to pre-pandemic rate of $200 from August 1, 2025.
“Also effective from August 1, 2024, the transit hours for departure tax exemption will reduce from 96 hours to 48 hours — equivalent to two days. At inception, the transit hours for departure tax exemption was 12 hours and later increased to 96 hours.”
The Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation was allocated $68.8m in the 2024-25 National Budget — includes $44m in Tourism Fiji grant, and $13.6m for the Fiji Tourism Development Program on Vanua Levu.
He also announced the setup of a Pilot Tourism MSME fund to support and empower tourism MSMEs, which will provide assistance of up to $15,000 to rural communities to assist in creating an enabling environment for investment, decent employment and sustainable tourism activities.
