Delhi airport to levy development fee from 2nd March

The Indira Gandhi International airport at Delhi or the IGI has levied a new tax on the outbound passengers. From the 2nd of March all the airlines operating from Delhi would be collecting a development fee of Rs 200 and Rs 1,300, from the departing domestic and international passenger, respectively. According to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation or the DGCA, this information has been passed on to all the airlines and they have started collecting the fee accordingly. Official sources said that the airlines had also started collecting this tax as per the instructions of the government. Also the airlines, which were collecting the fee that had been levied by Delhi International Airport Ltd or DIAL, will be getting collection charges of Rs five per passenger. This fee, which had come into affect since the beginning of March, would be collected for 36 months and the GMR-led joint venture DIAL, which has been given the charge of modernizing the airport, may be exempting certain sections of passengers from the fee.
 
The sections that would be exempted from these taxes would include infants traveling on infant tickets and the diplomatic passport holders along with the airlines crew on duty. Also the persons traveling on official duty on IAF aircraft would be exempted from this tax. Several other categories might also be included in the exempted category might like the transit and transfer passengers spending less than six hours at the airport. Apart from this, all the passengers who were departing from Delhi airport due to any involuntary rerouting of the airplanes or even for technical problems or weather conditions and other similar reasons would be exempted from this tax. The government had also allowed Mumbai International Airport Ltd or the MIAL to levy this fee. Henceforth this airport would become the fourth airport operator to be allowed to levy a development fee, which would be Rs 100 and Rs 600 from each domestic and international passenger, respectively. It has been decided that the Mumbai airport would be levying this fee effective April one and this fee would be in force for four years. However it would be reviewed every six months to consider the charges and conditions of the airlines. Also the new airports in Hyderabad and Bangalore, which are already charging high User Development Fee have been already criticized the International Air Transport Association or IATA. The Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel commented that such fees could be imposed even at airports being modernized by the Airports Authority of India. With the airfare rates going sky high again and the railway minister planning to lower the charges for the AC two tiers, the options of flying are going to be further affected and trains are going to be preferred for one night journey, which would lead to added problems for the aviation industry.