The long-awaited steering committee relating to the application of the tourist tax in the Municipality of Bari has been officially appointed with a council resolution.
The group will be made up of seven members, three of whom have been chosen from among the representatives of the two most representative trade associations in the tourism sector and a representative of the chamber of commerce. For Confesercenti Raffaella Altamura will sit at the technical table, Giuseppe Chiarelli will instead represent Confcommercio – business for Italy, while the Chamber of Commerce has designated Marina Lalli as its representative. Added to these are the administration technicians Luciana Cazzolla, director of the Culture, Religions, Equal Opportunities, Communication, Territorial Marketing and Sport Division, Michele Cassano, director of the Food Police, Ecology and Productive Activities Sector, Rosalba Cirillo, director of the Taxes and Lisa Pietropaolo.
The individuals who will be responsible for designating the members of the committee will have to indicate the names chosen within 30 days of the request made by the Culture division. The members of the committee, who will remain in office for 4 years with the possibility of being renewed in the role, will not be entitled to any emolument for carrying out the planned activities. The task of the committee will be to establish a constant, proactive and proactive dialogue between the institutions and trade associations, both in terms of promotion and development of activities connected to the cultural-tourism sector, and of functional collaboration for the use of the resulting sums from the application of the tax rates. It will also be able to propose to the various municipal departments responsible for the subject matter the carrying out of investigations, studies and research, also in collaboration with bodies, institutes and committees with similar purposes.
The committee will meet periodically, at least once a year, in premises made available by the municipal administration or electronically upon convocation by the president, who takes care of the guidance and coordination of the work. These activities are the responsibility of the vice president, who will be appointed by the president during the first meeting of the committee, in case of his absence or impediment. The body is constituted in the presence of the president and half plus one of the members. In the event of repeated absence, without justification, of one or more members of the committee, the president must declare their dismissal and arrange for their replacement. During the meetings, the secretary, always appointed by the president during the first meeting of the body, will record the discussions, indicating attendance, topics discussed, positions and proposals expressed.
Federalberghi: «The group does not meet the criteria. Ready to appeal to the TAR”
«The steering committee does not reflect the approved regulations: the tourism sector associations are not represented. For this reason we are ready to appeal to the TAR.” Federalberghi is not involved in the appointment of the members of the steering committee for the application of the tourist tax.
In a vitriolic note signed by president Francesco Caizzi, the association harshly criticized the choice of the municipal administration and the policies implemented by Tourism councilor Ines Pierucci. «Three people who have nothing to do with the knowledge, attendance and management of the city’s tourist accommodation system were chosen to represent the trade associations. One of them, a spa tourism entrepreneur, lives between Trani and Rome and works in Margherita di Savoia, the second carries out managerial activities for Confcommercio Puglia and lives in Martina Franca, the third person, however, has representative roles in the provincial Confesercenti and lives and works in Molfetta. In short, all three do not live in Bari, but frequent it occasionally, like the many commuters who are sometimes forced to stay there overnight using the Bari accommodation facilities and, therefore, paying the tourist tax. These appointments do not in any way represent the trade associations of Bari which has as its main operational nucleus the hotel accommodation companies (80% represented by Federalberghi) and those of the non-hotel sector”.
Hence the decision to present an appeal to the TAR because the Municipality’s provision does not respect the “representation” criterion established by art. 14 of the Municipal Regulation for the application of the tourist tax. «Once again the Mayor and his branch councilor demonstrate sloppiness and lack of attention towards city tourism».
The Municipality: «No anomaly in the bureaucratic procedures»
The Municipality’s response to the note with which Federalberghi protests the exclusion from the Advisory Committee for the application of the tourist tax was not long in coming. «The administration has not accumulated any delay in establishing the Committee. The procedures were carried out quickly and were carried out not by the mayor – who does not carry out these activities – but by the competent manager. If over time there have been delays in the introduction of the tourist tax, they were determined exclusively by the stubborn hostility, bordering on boycott, expressed by Federalberghi towards a modern form of taxation applied in almost the entire country and also widely spread abroad.”
Even greater surprise on the part of the Municipality, he aroused criticism for having appointed people from outside Bari to the Committee. «On this point it is evidently appropriate to specify that the designations of the members in question were made directly by the trade associations and that the Municipality complied with them, as it should. Therefore, Federalberghi’s criticisms should be addressed directly to the designating associations, including the one to which Federalberghi belongs. And, however, it should also be specified that the objective of improving the attractiveness of the city of Bari requires an additional capacity for dialogue and the strength to overcome controversies and misunderstandings”.
Finally, the appeal to the trade association. «If the meaning of the Federalberghi statement, net of the tones and arguments used, is to request greater openness to the economic actors of the territory, encouraging their participation, the Municipality has no prejudicial and declares itself ready to verify possible integrations of the representation in way to extend the plurality of opinions”.
