Private aviation firms sore over DGCA norms

Hyderabad: Domestic aviation companies that are optimistic about the country’s ability to weather the current “financial storm” appear to be sore over the stringent guidelines of the Director-General of the Civil Aviation.
The Union Finance Ministry’s move to levy around 25 per cent duty in the form of import, countervailing and additional customs duties as well as the delay in obtaining permissions from departments concerned appears to have irked a section of industry.
“Imposing 16 per cent countervailing duty is not justifiable at all. The government’s decision to exempt certain categories from the new duty is deterring prospective buyers from buying aircraft,” Aerosource (India) director Vinod Singel said.
He also objected to the Director-General of Civil Aviation’s (DGCA) move to see that the airlines send back their foreign pilots and recruit local ones by 2010.
“The young pilots, of course, need to be placed. But, one cannot hand over their Rs.100-crore aircraft to a trainee,” he told The Hindu.
Monarch International president Ashok Sawhny is angry with the delays in securing permissions for bringing in new aircraft into the country.
19/10/08 The Hindu

To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline

Categories: Indian Aviation- In General Oct 2008