Mial to charge development fee from March

Mumbai: Flying out of Mumbai is set to become more expensive from March.
The airport will start collect ing a fee of Rs350 per domestic passenger and Rs1,000 from international fliers, upon approval from the ministry of civil aviation that is expected this week, to finance its expansion and modernization.
The Mumbai International Airport Pvt. Ltd (Mial), a special purpose vehicle set up to improve the infrastructure and facilities at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai, will levy the fee for an airport development fund, or ADF. The consortium (Mial) is led by infrastructure firm GVK Group.
“We have made all necessary submissions before the government for approving ADF for the Mumbai airport,” said a senior executive at GVK who did not want to be named. “We are aiming at collecting Rs2,000 crore in the form of ADF for the next three years.”
Money from the fund, he said, would be used to reduce Mial’s debt burden and for capital expenditure.
A senior government official, who did not want to be named, said GVK’s proposal would be approved after due diligence, in time for introduction of the new levy by March. Audit and consulting firm KPMG India is doing the due diligence on the submissions.
On Friday, Sanjay Reddy, managing director of Mial, said the airport was facing a shortfall of Rs2,000 crore and had requested the government to allow it to collect the money to bridge this investment.
22/02/09 P.R. Sanjai/Livemint

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Categories: Airports Feb 2009