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Sunday 22 February 2015

Union Budget 2015: Aviation industry seeks sops for survival

India has the potential to become the third-largest aviation market by 2020 and the largest by 2030, says a FICCI-KPMG report.

ccording to the report, the Indian civil aviation industry is on a high growth trajectory, albeit with minor hiccups.
“The industry has ushered in a new wave of expansion driven by low cost carriers (LCC), modern airports, foreign direct investments (FDI) in domestic airlines, cutting-edge information technology (IT) interventions and a growing emphasis on no-frills airports (NFA) and regional connectivity,” the report said adding that the industry is amongst top 10 in the world with a size of around USD 16 billion. However, the aviation industry is facing its own set of challenges.

The last Budget announced schemes for development of new airports in Tier I and Tier II cities. However, the industry has been seeking more sops. Union Minister of Civil Aviation, Ashok Gajapathi Raju, in a pre-Budget meet with the representatives and stakeholders of the industry, on February 3, held discussions on the problems plaguing the sector. Issues pertaining to updation of standards for security equipment, establishment of a “green” channel for MRO equipment and allocation of appropriate funds for air navigation facilities were discussed among other subjects. The industry made several suggestions for the promotion of MRO sector, including removal of service tax, reducing VAT on MRO activities, 10-year tax holiday, abolition of central excise duty on MRO component etc. If these measures are taken, it was represented, there would be creation of one lakh jobs with more than a billion dollar revenues to the country on account of MRO activities. The stakeholders also requested to treat ATF as a “declared goods” so that VAT on ATF could be reduced to 4 percent. This would make airlines more viable as ATF constitutes more than 45 percent of the cost.
20/02/15  Moneycontrol.com

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