Gangtok, Aug 17 : The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Sikkim unit held a press conference at its City Office in Gangtok on Monday, raising sharp objections to the state government’s proposed Integrated Single Window Permit System for tourism, along with a steep new permit fee structure, ahead of a stakeholder meeting scheduled with Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang.
The party said it supports the principle of a single-window, technology-driven permit system that would spare tourists and operators from visiting multiple offices for Restricted Area and Protected Area Permits. However, it raised what it called serious unanswered questions about who will own the system, who will control the data it collects, and why the fee hike attached to it is being proposed without adequate consultation.
BJP leaders pointed to what they described as a recurring pattern in Sikkim of handing AI-driven and technology-based government systems to private companies with little public disclosure. They cited Cab Sikkim, introduced in 2023 by Beltek, whose Sikkim-specific entity, Beltek Sikkim Private Limited, was incorporated in 2025 with a share capital of Rs 10 lakh but paid-up capital of only Rs 20,000. The party said the public was never told the contract value, duration, data ownership terms, or whether the company could share data with third parties.
The party also cited the Gangtok Municipal Corporation’s trade licensing portal, alleging that the National Informatics Centre’s (NIC) systems were handed to a private operator, resulting in a Rs 150 registration charge on top of licence fees, with roughly 70 percent of licences still unrenewed as a result. It also referenced the Tourism Sustainable Development Fund (TSDF), a Rs 50 charge collected from hotel guests, which it said is being administered by a Kolkata-based firm, Visito Ventures Private Limited, without clarity on the commission structure between the company and the state.
Turning to the new Integrated Single Window Permit System, BJP said the technology backbone appears to already be earmarked for private handling, and questioned whether the Chief Administrator, Chief Secretary, or Tourism Department officials were misleading the government on the matter. The party noted that the system, as proposed, would gather data not only from tourists — including passport and identity details — but from drivers, tour operators, travel agencies, hotels, homestays and Airbnb hosts, and would use geo-fencing to track vehicle movement in real time. Given Sikkim’s status as a sensitive border state, the party said, ownership of such a system cannot rest with a private entity.
BJP also flagged what it called a contradiction: the state is simultaneously inviting tenders, floated July 30, 2026, for an Artificial Intelligence Centre of Excellence under the Department of Information Technology, in partnership with India AI Mission (MeitY) and NEILT, to be hosted at Nar Bahadur Bhandari Degree College — while handing a separate tourism permit and data system to a private company.
On fees, the party said the proposed rate chart includes charges of Rs 2,000 for vehicles below 1000cc travelling to Nathula, Baba Mandir and Doklam, Rs 1,500 for Lachung, Lachen, Yumthang and Gurudongmar, Rs 3,000 and Rs 2,000 respectively for vehicles above 1000cc, Rs 5,000 and Rs 3,000 for tempo travellers, Rs 7,000 and Rs 5,000 for buses, and Rs 500 per motorbike, with additional charges for outstation bikes and pillion riders. BJP noted that permits to Nathula currently cost Rs 200, with most other routes free of charge, calling the proposed increase — as high as 2,000 to 3,000 percent in some cases — unprecedented anywhere else in the country.
The party invoked the collapse of Sikkim’s cardamom economy as a cautionary example, warning that tourism, now a primary livelihood for drivers, guides, homestay owners, hoteliers and travel agents, could suffer a similar fate if costs are pushed too high. It cited a 2024 CPGRAMS complaint wave over excessive taxi fares that had prompted the Union Ministry of Tourism to write to the state government, after which a rate-fixing exercise was conducted by the Chief Secretary and DGP-level officials.
BJP said it stands with drivers, guides, porters, cooks, tour operators and hospitality businesses, and would take the matter to the streets or to court if the government proceeds without addressing their concerns. The party’s twin demands are that the Integrated Single Window Permit System remain under state government ownership, with private players restricted to technical support roles only, and that any permit fee introduced start at a nominal Rs 50–100 rather than the proposed steep rates.
The party also questioned the Tourism Department chairman’s public statements on geo-fencing, noting an apparent contradiction between claims that only Sikkim-registered travel agents could operate within the system and official language describing GPS-based tracking of all vehicles and visitors within authorised travel boundaries.
BJP said the broader goal should be a genuine single-window system that also resolves the state’s overlapping licensing requirements — covering pollution, fire, labour and tourism registrations — while keeping ownership of AI infrastructure and data with the Sikkim government.
