Civil aviation ministry opposes proposed service tax hike on air travel

26 Apr 2012 Evaluate

The Civil Aviation Ministry is not in favour of the proposed service tax hike on air travel. The Ministry is of the opinion that such steep hike in taxes will not only cause discomfort to the passengers but will also affect business  of airline companies that are already reeling under losses.

As per the budget proposal, the airline service tax is being made ad valorem implying that the tax would go up as the gross ticket price rises. Also service tax shall be hiked from the current 10% to 40%. At present, the tax has a cap of Rs 100 per journey for domestic sector in any class and Rs 500 for international.

As per the Civil Aviation Minister, Ajit Singh the step is a ‘retrograde step’ and has come in at a time when his Ministry is advocating specific duty rate for Value Added Tax on jet fuel instead of the varied rates of sales tax imposed by different state governments. By adding further he said, the service tax, along with the education cess on all airport and aviation services, would add to the already high tax burden on the sector.

Further, the hike is unwarranted as taxes on air transport are already disproportionately high. A further tax hike will only have a negative impact on economic growth and overall government's revenue basis.  The proposed tax hike is part of the Finance Bill, which is to be passed in the next session of Parliament.  

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