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Our Bureau

New Delhi, Oct. 24 A Parliamentary Committee has called for the immediate withdrawal of the user development fee (UDF) imposed on passengers in airports.

The committee has also expressed the opinion that there is no comprehensive privatisation policy for airports.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture in its report, Functioning of Private Airports and Related Issues, tabled on Thursday, points out that the task force on financing of airports had in July 2006 recommended that the users not be burdened with airport development or user development fee for financing airport projects.

“This is particularly important in the context of policy objective of making civil aviation a mass, rather than an elitist, model of travel and to make air travel more affordable,” the report states.

At the moment, the greenfield airports in Hyderabad and Bangalore levy a UDF of more than Rs 1,000 on international passengers leaving from there. In addition, domestic travellers leaving from Hyderabad have to pay a UDF of Rs 375. A similar fee is to be imposed in Bangalore after it is approved by the Ministry of Civil Aviation.

The committee has also recommended that the old airports in Hyderabad and Bangalore may be used exclusively for short-haul flights.

As regards keeping open the old airports at Bangalore and Hyderabad, the committee has said that there is no “reason or justification for keeping the hundreds of crores” worth of infrastructure at the old airports idle just to be used for VIP and other flights.

Arguing for allowing existing airports to remain open, the report points out that in the post-liberalisation era, privatisation has taken place in sectors like airlines, insurance, banking and petroleum among others. But not a single branch of any PSU was closed after private players entered.

“The Government, however, signed an agreement with Bangalore International Airport Limited to close down HAL airport, owned by AAI, for commercial operations. This action of the Government is not at all consistent with its policy in other sector,” the report adds.

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