To attract more private carriers for running flight operations to domestic and international destinations from the city airport, the Odisha government is keen to reduce value added tax (VAT) on aviation turbine fuel (ATF) to five per cent from 20 per cent presently.
"The state government is willing to reduce VAT on ATF to five per cent for the international flights touching Bhubaneswar and for all domestic flights from and to Bhubaneswar which touch at least one more airport located within the state," said chief minister Naveen Patnaik at the inaugural ceremony of the new domestic terminal. Urging the Odisha chief minister to take cognizance of the issue of reducing VAT rate on ATF, civil aviation minister Ajit Singh, said reduction of the rate to five per cent by the Chhattisgarh government has resulted in five fold rise increase in tax revenue due to the economic growth in alternative sectors such as travel, hospitality and tourism and 16 fold rise in passenger traffic handled at Raipur airport (15,000 passengers in 2002 to 8,02,000 in 2011).
05/03/13 Kolkata/ Bhubaneswar/Business Standard
