Campaigners are enraged over the SNP’s new tourist tax plans, which they say will do little to curb overtourism in the Scottish Highlands and will instead see pregnant women slapped with an unfair levy.
The tourist tax, which is expected to raise about £10million-a-year for local councils, will see visitors having to pay a 5 percent levy per-room per-night.
It has been branded a “shameful levy on the sick” by campaigners in the Scottish Highlands, who argue that people who need overnight hospital care will be slapped with the levy.
For those living in the Highlands, their closest hospital may be Raigmore in Inverness, around 100 miles away. Caithness Health Action Team (CHAT), based in the far north of Scotland, dubbed the system “a tax on expectant mums and unborn babies”, the Northern Times reports.
CHAT vice-chairman Iain Gregory said the new tax won’t address the real concerns Highlands residents have about overtourism, while simultaneously hitting them with the charge when they travel for medical care.
“We all know that the main issue we face in the Highlands is the exponential rise in ‘wild camping’, mainly by motorhomes, which are to be found parked up in every possible nook and cranny around the North Coast 500”, he said.
“And there is little doubt that the impact of huge numbers of campervans visiting our area is seen by many people as something that needs to be addressed.”
The tax isn’t applied to campervans, motorhomes, campsites or cruise ship passengers. However, in the council’s report, officials claim that those travelling for NHS treatment could claim the expenses back from the health board.
Mr Gregory added: “To summarise matters, the campervans that seem to cause the most disruption to life in our area will not be subject to the proposed tax, while the thousands of Caithness people who have to stay overnight in Inverness in order to access medical appointments – or who simply wish to visit friends and family, or go to the theatre, or have a break – will have to pay a five per cent tax, plus VAT, as they are now decreed to be ‘tourists’.
“And a pregnant mum, already forced to undergo the torturous 100-mile-plus journey to Raigmore to have her baby, and who requires to stay overnight before or after admission, will be taxed by Highland Council.
“I note the council claims that ‘NHS policy states that patients can claim expenses from their local NHS board’. I would suggest that someone in Highland Council needs to have a careful look at that policy. The current rate of reimbursement, as published by NHS Highland, is an overnight B&B rate of ‘up to £50 per person per night’.
“I would be delighted to hear from Highland Council where precisely in Inverness B&B accommodation can be obtained for ‘up to £50 per night’ and still leave headroom for the person to pay an additional tax to the council.
“The truth is that this proposal is a shameful levy on the sick and a tax on expectant mums and unborn babies. If it goes through then thousands of people from Caithness, and all over the Highlands, will be taxed because they are ill. We call on Highland Council to have a rapid rethink of this disastrous proposal.”
A Highland Council spokesperson said: “The Council is currently carrying out a public statutory consultation to seek views on the proposed introduction of a Visitor Levy scheme across the Highlands. To ensure that opinions and views are included in the statutory consultation we encourage people to register their comments by visiting the Council’s website at: www.highland.gov.uk/vlconsultation.”
