SC quashes levying of airport development fee on passengers

New Delhi: Passengers travelling out of Delhi and Mumbai airports would no longer have to pay Airport Development Fee (ADF) with the Supreme Court on Tuesday quashing the levy which has yielded about Rs 2,500 crores in two years. Hearing an appeal against the Delhi high court's order which had upheld levying of ADF, a bench of justices Cyriac Joseph and A.K. Patnaik set aside the policy of airport developers on the basis of which passengers departing from Delhi airport had to pay a fee of Rs 200 for domestic travel and Rs 1,300 for international trip and Rs 100 and Rs 600 respectively for those departing Mumbai airport. NGO, consumer online foundation, had contended in the appeal that the fee was illegal as it was not approved by Airports Economic Regulatory Authority of India (AERA). Unconfirmed estimates said GMR-led DIAL had collected about Rs 1,200 crores till 2010 through the ADF and the GVK-led MIAL collected Rs 1,300 crores. The fee was being collected from March 1, 2009, at Delhi airport and from April 1 the same year from passengers at Mumbai airport.
26/04/11 PTI/Deccan Chronicle

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Categories: Airports Apr 2011